Hidden Secrets
by LynMcCallum
Summary: So here's is the sequel to Secret War. Things are spiralling up to a finale and it all comes down to Rose's leadership skills and whether she'd be strong enough to keep the town going. Rose is also about to meet someone she never thought she would ;
1. Prologue

**_Okay sorry it's been so long since an update but my mind has just completely blanked on this story! I have the major events sorted out so all that's left is to fill in the holes and actually get to writing. Which isn't so easy especially with exams coming up and everything... Anyway, hope this sequel doesn't disappoint anyone! XD_**

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Prologue

Fear gripped me tightly and swirled around me. I was going to die; after all of this I was going to die. I choked back a sob and forced myself to be strong. If I was going down, I would go with pride. I wouldn't cry like a pathetic snob, I would keep my head held high with the proud and warm feelings of protecting those in the town from the corrupt. I had deep faith that Riya would be able to win this war and help restore the world so that friendly Strigoi didn't have to live in fear and certain guardians wouldn't have to hide any more.

I waited for the pain to hit but it never did. I heard a squelch but I still didn't feel the pain. Then several things happened at the same time. I heard a gasp of pain from the person in front of me and two growls not so far away. Through the rain I saw the red and black streaks of hair and realised with horror that Riya had taken the blow for me. The plunge had been meant for me, but instead she'd gotten between me and my opponent. She'd saved me again. Again her blood splattered on my face as I stared down at her. The guardian was still holding onto my neck with one hand while the other was holding onto the stake that had dug through Riya's back. I could see the blood coated tip of the stake protruding from her chest. She gave a guttural groan as the guardian shifted the stake. Her pale face was contorted with agony and her fringe stuck to her forehead. The glow that always used to be in her eyes slowly faded and pain flooded through me. The deep ache ate at my heart as I saw her face twist in pain every time the guardian twisted the stake. She'd had to save me again because I wasn't strong enough. Because I didn't have enough strength.

Her eyes rolled shut and a small and somewhat regretful smile stretched across her face.

"Riya!" I screamed with shameless tears running down my face.

Valentine's growl of pure ferocity and rage matched Cain's and together they lunged at the guardian who was twisting the stake in Riya's chest. The force of their attack had me skidding across the grass. Unfortunately, Riya fell to the other side; the side of the sea where the waves crashed against the rocks. No!

"_Stay strong Roza, you can make it through this and please keep the others filled with - "_

Her message was cut short and I scurried to the edge searching the waters for her but I couldn't see anything. I couldn't see a damn thing in the dark waters.

My name is Rose Hathaway. All my life I'd been trained to believe that all Strigoi were bad and that they deserved to be exterminated. But since coming to Russia, I knew that most of what I'd been taught had been a lie; a lie that the Queen forged. Not all Strigoi were evil and they also didn't have to depend on Moroi blood to survive. The blood merely made them stronger. I'd first come to Russia to hunt down my love: Dimitri Belikov. He'd been caught and changed into the undead. Back when he was still alive and my mentor, we'd made a secret promise, a promise that we'd kill the other should either of us be turned. I'd been driven by that promise to hunt him down and that chase led me to Russia where I met some of the most incredible people in the world not to mention the legendary guardian Raisa.

Ever since finding the Belikov holiday home, my life had been turned upside down. Most of what I'd ever learned at the academy became suspicious lies. I'd learned that Strigoi could live on animal blood and that some could regain the power they possessed in their Moroi life. I'd learned that Raisa (a really famous legendary guardian who rejected the request of guarding the queen bitch Tatiana) had not merely disappeared; she'd been murdered with the Queen's knowledge. Strigoi were being slaughtered at the Queen's orders when they could have a chance at living a new life. A life where they didn't have to give into their bloodthirsty desires. A life where they could live along side Moroi and dhampires. They'd all been stripped of that opportunity thanks to the Queen. And now the protector of this town, the one who shed a new light on so many people's lives and the hope of these Strigoi was gone. Even if it was Riya, the one who seemed to be able to survive everything couldn't have survived that. She'd been shot too many times and to end it she'd been staked through the heart by silver. I'd felt the connection break and I couldn't feel her at all anymore. Before I'd always been able to feel a glimpse of her power but I couldn't sense her at all now...

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**_So here's a little introduction and a recap of what happened at the end of the last chapter of Secret War. Hidden Secrets, yeah I know the title is really cheesy and crap but I couldn't think of anything else and it just seemed to fit ;)_**


	2. Chapter 1

1

I screamed in anger and pain and frustration. I should've been able to help her. I should've been more helpful than just accepting death. Riya was dead because of me. She was dead because she chose to protect me. Now, the very guardians that I'd been trained to trust and work alongside just killed one of the greatest legends. They killed out of sheer bloodlust. They didn't deserve to live. They were reigning havoc and destroying people's lives rather than protecting them. These people deserved far worse than death but I would show them mercy. I wouldn't kill them slowly; Riya would be disappointed in me if I did.

Growling I lunged past Cain and Valentine and smashed my fist against the guardian's face. He was howling in agony and I noticed he was missing an arm. Reaching out I took hold of his gun and without hesitation I emptied three bullets into his head. Then spinning around I shot the other two remaining guardians with deadly accuracy. I'd been training for weeks with the others and Valentine was an accurate shooter above all else. I could feel the shadow seeping into me in tides. Without Riya as my buffer, there was nothing that protected me against them and right now, Lissa was furious.

I welcomed the shadows and charged back into the town. With a newfound energy I didn't have before, I raged through the town knocking any unknown guardian unconscious in my path. I hunted each of them like a practiced predator until there were none left standing. I was punching a guardian with brute force and I couldn't find the will to stop. These assholes had killed Riya. They'd killed her and hurt other citizens in this town to sate their desires of destruction. They deserved to die and more. They deserved to be tortured.

Someone pulled me off gently but firmly and I snarled at them. I lashed out at whoever it was but he grabbed my wrist and caught the other before I could even move and held them behind my back. The person hugged me tightly so that I couldn't attack anymore. The rain continued to pelt on my skin and I felt sense slowly slip back into me. It took a while for me to recognise the person holding me. Everything in me broke and my knees bucked. I couldn't stand anymore. All the grief that I'd been holding back slammed into me and I crumbled. Dimitri gently lowered us to the ground so that I was sitting in front of him with his arms around me. Tears mixed with rain and I cried and screamed into his chest. Everything was silent except for the rain and my cries. I began pounding my fists into his chest in frustration. Riya hadn't deserved that death. She shouldn't have died. I should've been stronger. I should've been able to fight the guardian. This was all my fault.

It wasn't fair, she shouldn't have died. How could she leave us? This town needed her. We all needed her and now she's gone. I cried and I cried and when I thought that I couldn't cry anymore, tears continued to pour out of my eyes. The sky roared mirroring my emotions. Dimitri lifted me gently and carried my shaking form into a warm house.

"Rose? What's wrong?" Sofia asked worriedly. I couldn't find the strength to speak. I just couldn't. I buried my head deeper into Dimitri's chest and his arms tightened around me.

His voice was shaking with grief when he spoke. I could hear the anger in his voice too. I could feel his tense muscles and I knew that he wanted to shred the guardians to pieces, to destroy all who tried to destroy this town. "Riya's gone."

"What'd you mean?" I could hear the confusion in Sofia's voice. "You mean she's gone to get help?"

"No! He means that she's gone and she's never coming back and it's all my fault. The bastard who had the nerve to call himself a guardian killed her, drove a silver stake right through her heart!" I screamed. Dimitri hushed me and his hand brought my head back to his chest. He stroked my head soothingly but this time it wasn't enough to calm me. "She's gone Dimitri, she's gone…"

I heard someone fall to the ground and Mark called out. I lifted my head from Dimitri's chest to see Sofia shaking in grief on the floor with sobs raking through her body. "How could they do this to her?" she demanded. "She never did anything wrong!"

"She didn't have to have done anything wrong, the Queen wanted her and she refused. The Queen's crazy and we all know it." Mark growled. "The Queen always gets her way. Damn it!"

"Dimitri, you should take Roza back to the house." Valentine told him as she walked in. She looked tired and weary and grief occupied her eyes but I knew she refused to cry. "I'll take care of things here. And go hunting, you guys all need it."

"What about you?" Dimitri asked stiffly.

"I've already had my share of blood." Valentine gave him a tired smile and I knew that she'd taken from the guardians. I felt no shame or anger towards her. The guardians deserved it and for what they did to this town, they had to pay in some way.

"They're not dead though?" Dimitri warned.

"Their hearts are still beating. Don't worry, I know the rules Dimitri."

"I believe her Dimitri. As much as we may all want these bastards to die, Valentine still respects - " I was about to say Riya but my voice broke. I couldn't even find the strength to say her name. The images of her falling off the cliff were so vivid. I couldn't believe that she was really gone. What were we going to do now? Sooner or later this town was going to fall without its saviour and creator.

"Go get some rest Roza; we'll deal with things here." Valentine whispered softly touching a hand to my shoulder. Dimitri nodded and lifted me up. He carried me back to the house. As we passed through the town, I saw the destruction that had descended and anger rose again. Riya had worked hard to build and defend this town for these people's freedom and in one day almost everything was destroyed. I would defend it to my last breath. I had to. I was however relieved to see that our house was unharmed; it seemed that the guardian's didn't get far enough to take our house. Dimitri laid me down on the bed and slept beside me.

"Don't you need to feed?" I whispered.

"I'd taken enough of blood for the day don't you think?" he smiled at me. His smile was grim and filled with guilt.

"I threw myself at you and you stopped. That's the important thing, you stopped."

"But I could've so easily killed you. I didn't want to stop Roza. Your blood was just so sweet." Dimitri whispered huskily.

"But I'm still here."

"When that guardian was about to kill you, I was so scared that I was going to lose you."

"Thanks to my weakness, we've lost someone more important." I growled.

"It's not your fault Roza. Don't ever think that it's your fault. We all make our own decisions. Riya didn't have to throw herself in front of you. She could've easily disabled that guardian without even touching him. But sometimes, fear gets even the best of us and we act before thinking clearly." Dimitri explained.

"What are we going to do with the guardians Dimitri?"

"We get rid of every single one of their memories. That's what Riya suggested. Valentine is getting someone to help intercept any message going to and from the Queen." Dimitri told me. "Enough talk Roza, you need to rest. Try your best not to think too much about today."

I nodded and finally let the darkness claim me. I didn't get to rest for long though because all of a sudden I saw myself standing on the cliff. The sky was clear and clouds rolled peacefully across the sky. For a while I thought it was one of the usual dreams and that Adrian was going to appear anytime soon. After all the scenery seemed just like something he'd conjure from his mind. I stood there for a while simple looking out to the sea. It wasn't until I turned around and really _looked_ that I realised the scene was extremely familiar. I wasn't standing in a pigment of Adrian's imagination at all… this was the cliff where Riya had died. It looked so different to when there were dark angry clouds hanging over the field. This place looked calm and peaceful and no one would ever have suspected that a fight had taken place here at all.

I looked around a little more and I recognised the trees that surrounded the field separating this open field from the town. Then suddenly, everything changed. The scenery and the gentle breeze changed from calm and peaceful to complete chaos. The sky was almost black with thunder and lightening occupying the scene. The only light provided was from the small amounts of moonlight and every time lightening flashed. Darkness surrounded me and I began to hear shouts which sounded akin to battle cries. It was also similar to what I was hearing during the fight earlier on. Slowly shadow figures ran onto the field and one by one they dropped.

Something crashed into me causing me to stumble and fall. Sitting up I stared down at the person lying on my lap. Black hair fanned out around my legs and I noticed the vibrant strip of red that occupied her fringe. Her usually pale complexion was even paler and even took a somewhat grey tinge to it. She looked like the truly dead. Her normally bright eyes were dulled and I could no longer see the purple in them, just the flat red rim around her irises.

Shock rocked through my core as is stared down at her immobile form. Without warning, she began to disintegrate, turning into sand. I tried to catch her but a sudden gust of wind carried the grains away, her life slipped through my fingers and I sat on my haunches staring blankly at my hands. Grief continued to gnaw at me. I was so engrossed by my silent mourning that I didn't notice the change of scenery.

"Little dhampir?" Adrian's voice rang out to me but I could barely respond. My head felt like such a heavy wait on my shoulder I wasn't sure I'd be able to lift it. "Rose, what's wrong?" he asked as he lifted my head up for me. His eyes shone with concern and anguish rolled through me again causing him to flinch. "Something's happened hasn't it? Something's happened to her right?" he sighed as he sat beside me holding me close. It wasn't the same as the hugs he used to give me, the somewhat flirtatious hug that he used to give me had turned into one of comfort. His hands rubbed gentle circles on my back and I found myself relaxing into his touch.

"What'd you mean? How do you know?" I asked with a small voice.

"Your face says it all. I haven't seen you so broken since you found out about Dimitri being dead," he sighed. I stared up at him sensing the half truth in his words. "Alright fine, she gave us a forewarning. She appeared three days ago in the cabin and called me and Eddie there for consultation. She said that there was going to be a huge fight and she wasn't sure what to expect from it. Rai gave us some instructions on what to do if we felt we were in great danger. She gave us a place to go to in Los Angeles with someone she says we can trust. She said that the moment we felt as though the Queen was catching on, we had to run. So tell me, what's happened on your end?"

"The town was under raided by guardians and- and…" I tried to continue speaking but it took a while to get my voice. "There were a lot of injuries but luckily no deaths on our end. No deaths but one…" I wanted Adrian to get the message since I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to say it.

"But one…" he repeated and stared out at the calm sea. A dark expression dawned on his face and grief flared. Unshed tears glistened in his eyes and I watched as beads rolled down his cheeks. "She is indeed a true guardian…" he praised with a choked voice. His arms tightened around me as his body trembled slightly. "She knew things would go down badly. She must've known it or else she wouldn't have given us those instructions…"

I sat with him with my arms wrapped around his body. Neither of us said anything more. There was nothing we could say. Riya was important to the both of us and her death was just too shocking. Hell I was still having a hard time accepting the fact that she was really gone. I couldn't help but hope that this was all just a horrible nightmare and I would wake up the next day and Riya would be cooking bacon and eggs in the kitchen while the others were spread around in the kitchen.

Zana and Luka would be arguing about something. Eve and Michael would be flirting as would Shane and Clare. Konstantin and Aleksandr would be chatting to Riya. Val would probably be reading or something. I wasn't sure why but she seemed like a bookworm to me. And last but not least, Dimitri. Dimitri would probably be sitting on the sofa, sprawled comfortably reading one of the classics.

Then after breakfast we would probably head to town to see what we could do to help around if the sun wasn't too bright. Or we would train inside the house or even watch a movie or something until dark.

Eventually he began to fade away so he bade me goodbye and told me he'd break the news to the others. I woke up feeling groggy from the amount of crying I'd done the night before. The house was silent but it was comfortable like usual. This silence felt suffocating and strained. With a heavy sigh I pushed up from the bed, bracing myself for the day. I took a quick shower, changed into some clean clothes and headed over to the main house.

I could hear shouting as I approached and I broke into a sprint when I heard a crash. When I stepped into the kitchen, I stared in horror at the scene in front of me. Valentine was crouching on splinters that used to be the dinning table and she was snarling at Luka who was crouching down too. Zana was watching from the side with an anguished expression. Cain wasn't around and I knew that neither Konstantin nor Alik had heard the news yet. The four Morganville vamps stood to the side looking awkward, not quite sure what to do.

I took a deep breath, steadied myself and gathered all the courage I could muster. "OI!" I shouted at them stepping into the middle hoping to postpone the fight. The tension was so tangible you could cut it with a knife. "What the hell are you two doing?" I demanded.

"She couldn't keep her pathetic mouth shut ordering us around like she has a say in this house!" Luka snarled pointing at Valentine.

"Well what do you expect us to do you idiot? We can't just sit around and do nothing. Your plan was for us to wait like sitting ducks until the next batch of guardians arrived to storm the town!" Valentine retorted.

"Anything beats your plan! We might be Strigoi and we might not sleep but we do need rest! What you planned would've worked Zana to the ground!"

"Both of you shut up!" I commanded. "God, what is wrong with you. Can't either of you talk to one another without breaking into a fight all the time?"

"It's her/his fault!" they snarled at each other.

I sighed in frustration and turned to Zana. "You're the calm one, what happened?"

"Well, they're both right in some respects." Zana said after a moment of silence to gather her composure. "We can't sit around like sitting ducks because the guardians will be back without a doubt. But I can't work at the rate Valentine suggested. That's not possible, not for any creation. Well, there's an exception but I'm not her."

The room fell into silence again at the mention of Riya. We all knew that that was who Zana meant by the exception.

"Look, let's try to reorganise ourselves first." I spoke breaking the silence. "It's only the second day. I agree with Valentine that we cannot sit around like ducks. But no one is prepared to start working yet. From the damage that I saw last night, the town needs time. Time that we don't have. I'm aware of that but there's nothing we can do. Being a dhampir myself I understand their limits. We'll have those who aren't as injured take turns patrolling so that we'll be warned if an attack is prominent. Zana, you're the most trained medic here but there are others around who are skilled. I remember seeing your team of people working at the hospital last time. Were many of them injured?"

"No, we made sure they were the ones who weren't injured." Zana shook her head.

"Then I suggest we head over to the hospital to help out with the injured ones. I'll go scout around the town to see who needs help with what and we'll build our plan up from there. Valentine, you're Riya's messenger to the outside world right? Are there any contacts you know we can trust for sure who will be willing to help us?" I asked.

"There are many we can trust but whether they are ready to put their necks on the line I'm not sure of." Valentine said uncertainly as she straightened up.

"Well then could I be a bitch and ask you to leave town now and see who you can get to help us out. Anyone will do so long as we can trust them. We're going to need all the help we can get after all."

"You can't seriously be putting her in charge of such a task!" Luka argued.

"Luka, this is the person Riya has trusted all these years to help keep the town safe from the outside. She's the only one who knows who we can trust outside of this community. Do you have a better suggestion?" I turned to him impatiently. He was silent. "Exactly, my point proven. Where's Cain?"

"He's gone to break the news to her guardian partners." Zana told me.

"And Dimitri?"

"Went with him to check on his family and to see whether his mother would have any input. He's going to explain about our existence and see whether he could get help from that side. He suspects that there could be quite a lot of people who could help us in that place since most of them are blood whores and they could gather information better than anyone else can."

"Okay, so we've all got a job, let's move it!" I commanded as I pointed at the door leading out of the house. The Morganville vampires were first to leave, glad to have something to do and glad to be out of the tense atmosphere. Luka stood fixated on the spot before following Zana out. Valentine stared at me for a moment before a smile broke across her face.

"Now I know why Riya chose you," she said cryptically before disappearing out of the house as well. I rolled my shoulders to relieve the tension in my muscles. I had not expected to have to command Strigoi first thing in the morning.


	3. Chapter 2

2

I stared around the kitchen for a moment and imagined Riya cooking breakfast at the stove and everyone chatting happily scattered around the room. The image lingered in my mind for a moment before everything faded away to the sad silence. _What's done is done, moping around isn't going to get me anywhere but killed._ I thought grimly. I headed out of the house and headed to the town to begin my share of the work for the day.

A lot of people had been injured, both Moroi and dhampir. The hospital crew definitely had their hands full and there was only one spirit user here which was better than having none at all. The ground had been patched back up, the ditches hidden away again until the next attack. People looked weary; some dragged themselves around from place to place in grief. No doubt everyone heard the news of Riya's death.

"Rose!" Mark called when he saw me patrolling around the town. I gave him a smile and headed over. "So what'd you think is going to happen?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. I mean, I don't know how long it'll take for those guardians to reassemble themselves for another attack. I hope it won't be any time soon, this town definitely won't be ready for a while, especially with our loss." I shook my head. "All we can do is hold up the best we can with repairing the town and treating the injured ones. We'll find those who aren't as hurt and we'll set up patrols. We're short of guards at the moment with Dimitri and Cain in Baia trying to get help there and Valentine has gone off to contact other contacts."

Mark stared at me for a moment before dragging me towards the town hall where the mayor was. "Yo chief, Rose has stuff to say concerning the town." Mark declared as he dragged me into the hall where several people were debating.

"What? Mark what're you doing?" I stammered.

"Miss Hathaway -"

I cut the mayor off, I hated being called that. "Rose, please call me Rose."

"Alright then, Rose. I'm sure you're aware that we are in something of turmoil here. Because of our choice of lifestyle, many here in this town, human or not have been forced into this war between the Queen and the Strigoi." The mayor held up his hand when he noticed I was about to have an outburst. After all, from the way he was explaining things, it was as though he was resenting having trusted Riya all those years ago. Back talking the dead, especially Riya was so not on. "We do not regret having chosen this way of living. I am merely stating the facts that humans are at a disadvantage here. After all, we cannot fight any where near as well as dhampirs and Moroi can."

"I'm sure that we can come up with something to help with that disadvantage chief." Mark grinned.

"Also, Valentine has gone to track other contacts. I'm sure that someone will be able to give some input on how we can even the playing field." I added. "Dimitri and Cain have already gone to gather more help and to bring Konstantin and Aleksandr back. I also have friends that I can contact and I know they'll be more than willing to give us a helping hand."

"Rose tell them about your plan." Mark urged.

"Plan? What plan?" I asked him incredulously. I don't remember having one at all.

"What you were telling me outside," he sighed exasperatedly.

I stared at him for several moments more before I realised what he meant. "That wasn't a plan."

"It was something for people to do nonetheless; human or not," he grinned.

"Well, I was suggesting that we place people on guard, moving around in the trees and stuff. Set up some bases high enough so that attacking guardians won't be able to see. We'll get the Earth specialists to help shield the bases on the tree tops. Dhampirs can't see in the dark, not completely and they'll most likely be trying to attack during the night to make things easier. They know we have humans here now and they know that attacking in daylight would be just as hard as the night.

We should perhaps train more people to help out in the hospital too. I noticed last time that we were very tight on staff so it'll probably help. What sort of humans have we got here?"

Everyone in the hall was staring at me as if I had two heads. A man with a gruff voice, messy brown hair and hard blue eyes spoke first. "We've got a few high school students but they're smart and are training to be medics. Adults wise, we have a few fashion designers, construction workers and three blacksmiths."

"Basically hard working well built men?" I smiled. This wasn't going to be as bad as I thought!

"Pretty much," he nodded. "I'm Alan by the way."

"Nice to meet you. I take it you're the spokesman for the workers." I grinned.

"Something like that," he gestured vaguely.

"How do you usually get the food supplies?"

"We get imports."

"That could be endangered right?"

"That's why we have a year's worth of reserves hidden underground in a freezer." Alan grinned.

"Right, so who does the deliveries?"

"It's different every week. But without fail, there's always a huge truck full of food that arrives. We have our own meat farm though so we do have fresh meet."

"Okay, so that's food done. What about health supplies?"

"Comes with the food but in a different truck."

"This town is well structured." I grinned.

_Council of Strigoi general POV_

"Can you sense her?" Blake asked for the millionth time that evening.

Haru shook her head and slouched in her chair. "Let her rest Blake." Malerna reprimanded. "Even Haru has her limits and searching for Raisa cannot be easy."

"I can't believe this, how could this have happened?" Jasper groaned feeling the clashing of emotions in the room.

"Even the best falls sometimes, especially when they have something to care for more than their own lives." Raphael commented sadly.

"And we all know that Raisa cared more of her town than anything else." Faa-Lin added.

"It wasn't just a town to her, it was her family. A family that she'd built and protected till her last breath." Eshe sighed.

"Ain't that the truth? And they're not even out of danger yet. The guardians could attack that town at any moment." Agon scoffed.

"Not quite, they did damage the guardian's structure." Jonathon shook his head. "They won't be able to reassemble for a while," he spoke with experience having been a general himself before his 'death'.

"That town is going to need help. They depend on the supplies imported from neighbouring towns and cities. The Queen could easily shut them down. Eventually they will starve." Malerna said.

"No. We cannot directly interfere. That was the rule remember? She is a master in her own right and has no master above her. Until she is a member of the Council we cannot offer our services." Raphael stated firmly despite his desire to help Raisa.

"In case you forgot Rafe, she may never be able to become a member of the Council." Agon said coolly.

"I have not forgotten, but unless a new leader of that town steps forward and offers a price, we cannot help them."

_"What if we simply help make sure their supplies don't get sabotaged? That way we wouldn't be helping the town directly."_ Haru suggested.

Everyone fell silent for a moment deep in thought and the silence was broken with Maxim strolled into the room with a hardened expression.

"No luck?" Blake asked.

Kiki whined as an answer and Maxim settled in his chair. For the rest of the day the Council considered about how they could help Raisa's town without breaking the rules. Suddenly, without warning Kiki began barking viciously and darted out of the room. Drew, the top guard crashed into the room with his head bowed.

"There's been an emergency, alchemists appeared with a group of dhampirs and Misha's been taken." Drew announced.

"He what?" Blake almost growled.

_"It's the Queen. It's her doing." _Haru told them. _"She's involved with Misha, she's his pet."_

"But Misha wants Raisa for himself, why would he have ordered the siege on her town?" Raphael frowned.

"Simple, he didn't plan for her death and no doubt he still has no idea that she's dead. If that Queen can do anything about it, he won't find out for a long while. Not if she wants to live." Agon scoffed.

"Get the intruders out, dead or alive I don't care." Jasper commanded.

"We cannot kill them." Eshe protested. "If we do the guardians will have more to add to the lies being taught."

"What difference does it make? The war's already begun Eshe. The war began with that attack on Raisa's town." Jasper stated.

"I agree with him Eshe." Jonathon commented. "The attack on her town by the Queen is the last straw. There've been attacks before but never organised to such an extent. The war has begun and it's time we made our moves. After all, Raisa no doubt knew about this, other wise she would've have sent us that letter last week."

"Then it's been decided, we'll alert our informers and tell them to keep their guard up for possible attacks." Raphael stated.

_"I will continue searching for her."_ Haru told them.

_Back to the town with Rose's POV_

It's been a few days now and things seem to be progressing steadily. I haven't had contact from either Valentine or Cain and Dimitri. I just hoped that they were safe. As I'd suggested before, we'd begun constructing bases scattered around in the tree tops to keep watch of intrusions. There was nothing more any of us could do until either Valentine or Cain and Dimitri comes back with news. We were stuck. People continued training and Zana continued to teach others about treating injuries.

Just like the other time when I was faced with indecision, I ended up at the spot in woods where I'd first Riya. I sat on the stump and rested my chin on my hands. "Geez, what are we meant to do now? Give me some help here; the town's people are beginning to lose morale Riya. I'm not you; I didn't save this town from doom. You did. People are growing tired and they're losing hope, fast. I don't know how to get these people together any more. They listen to me, but that's not the problem. I have no idea how to give them more confidence. There've already been three fights in the past week." I sighed talking to the silence within the woods. I rested on my back on a pile of leaves and stared up at the tree tops. A strange little package sitting on a branch caught my eye. It was the same tree where Riya had hung upside down both times when I had no idea what to do. She couldn't have…

I jumped up and dashed over trying to find a way to climb up. Eventually I gave up finding an easy way and just climbed. It was hard; climbing trees was harder than I remembered. After what felt like forever, I finally managed to get onto the branch and I sat on it as I opened the small package. Inside was a letter, a music player and a beautiful rose carved out of wood.

I opened the letter and felt emotion well up when I recognised her artistic handwriting.

_'Yo, if you're reading this then that means you're outta confidence again. Shame on you Roza! No doubt if you're reading this then that means I'm gone as well. I know the town's people well so you're probably trying to find a way to boost their morale right? And no doubt the others are fighting or not talking to each other as much? If not then I'm proud of you for being able to keep their fights apart. Hell, even I had difficulty with that.'_

I couldn't help but laugh at the way she spoke in her letter. It was as though she was right there beside me. I could practically imagine the pout on her face as she mock glared at me. Riya always had an incredible way of reading the situation although the line about the fights wasn't quite true. The other Strigoi weren't fighting but only because Valentine wasn't here. No doubt, if she was Luka and her would be fighting every day.

_'So since you're reading this and you need help, I might as well give you as much support as I could. You being the little leader that you are, have probably already sent Valentine on a hunting mission to get as much help as you could get. Before long, she should be bringing help from someone quite interesting. You'll probably find him incorrigible but that's understandable. I won't go into detail about that but you'll understand after you meet him. Try to mix a fashion maniac with a mafia boss and you've got one of my most trusted companions outside of the town. Well, one who's not a Strigoi anyway._

_Since I'm not actually there, I don't know how much help I'll be able to provide. For a start, I'll advise you on how to guard yourselves against Moroi. Since you were learning all about how to protect in school, I'll bet you were never taught how to defend yourselves against them to the max. Go find Mark and ask him to unlock the storeroom number 15."_

I continued to read the letter, there were about five pages to it. I read it through twice to make sure everything she said was committed to memory before tucking it away into my pocket. I flicked through the play list in the music player and grinned when the first song came up. Riya sure as hell was childish, after all, who would've thought someone her age would still be listening to songs from the 'Lion King'?

I hurried back to the town with the music thrumming through my ears and found the intercom system that was linked throughout the town. I hadn't known one existed until I read it in her letter. The man on duty gave a startled cry when I just barged in and plugged the music player in. I turned the music up to the max and the song 'We Are One' from the 'Lion King 2' came through the speakers. Looking out of the window I saw many people stop dead in the streets to listen and I watched as their expressions changed one by one.

Their depressed faces changed and smiles could be seen all around. I smiled as life returned to the town and hurried out of the studio to find Mark. He was in the town hall discussing about patrol times again.

"Hey Mark, can I borrow you for a moment?" I asked.

"Rose, not right now," he shook his head.

"Please, it's important." I insisted. "And why don't you all take a break. Go outside and get some fresh air or something?" I suggested as I dragged Mark out of the conference room. "Could you open storeroom 15?"

"What? How did you know about that?"

"Riya told me."

"Why would we need to open that room?"

"Because the next time there's an attack, they might have more Moroi with them fighting against us." I explained patiently.

He stumbled somewhat when he stepped outside and heard the song that was being played. "This was Riya's favourite song… and the song she sang all those years ago… Follow me."

I followed Mark to the back of someone's house and he drew out a key from his pocket. When he opened it, dust wafted up and I coughed fanning with my hand to stop the dust from smothering my face. I followed him down the dim stairs and when we reached the bottom, he flicked a switch.

Lights spread throughout the room revealing posters on the walls and shelves. Wards. This room contained wards against Moroi…

"Do the Moroi in the town know about these?" I stammered.

"Yeah, they helped make them." Mark nodded. "This way the wards would only be activated against Moroi the wards don't recognise, in other words, Moroi who intend to harm this town."

"I never knew these things existed…"

"You wouldn't, especially since you never graduated." Mark shook his head. "There was a law placed a couple of decades ago stating that these things had to be banned. They stopped teaching the students about these too and those already knew of it weren't allowed to talk about it."

"No doubt the queen bitch wanted to keep this hidden." I scoffed. "This is perfect; do we have enough people to cast it?"

"Yes, I'll bring it into discussion when I get back to the meeting." Mark nodded.

"Alright, I'll leave this to you Mark." I smiled and left the basement heading towards my next task.

_'In the locked storeroom of the hospital, there should be a bunch of rings in a wooden box. You can't miss it. The rings are infused with the magic of spirit users and it should keep the shadows away a little for you and the others who need it. This way, hopefully there won't be as many fights. I'm not sure how it works, I think all you do is put it on and it should work. For further consultation: ask a Moroi called Adriana. She's a spirit user if you don't already know.'_

I dashed into the hospital and promptly bumped into Zana. "Hey Roza, what's with the rush?"

"I've got lots to do before the day is up Zana." I grinned. "Do you know where I can find Adriana?"

"The spirit user? Yeah I think she's in room 320 at the moment."

"Cheers, catch you later and you should broadcast the radio throughout the hospital or something. You never know, something good might happen." I winked knowing full well that the songs on that music player were being broadcasted through the radio stations in this town.

"I really don't get you sometimes Rose." Zana laughed. "But I'll get right on that."

I headed upstairs running up three flights of stairs to find the Moroi. "Adriana?" I whispered into the quiet room. I found her sitting beside a patient reading. I beckoned her and she closed her book quietly and slipped out of the room.

"Hey Rose, what can I do for you? Have you hurt yourself or something?"

"No, but I reckon you're the one with the key to the storeroom in the hospital."

"How did you know about that?" she stammered.

"Riya."

"I guess it's to limit the fights huh? I'm not sure whether they'll still work. It's been years after all but I guess there's no harm in using them," she shrugged. She led me to a storeroom on the roof and sitting on the centre table was a small wooden box. "There should be enough for everyone who needs one here."

"Thanks Adriana." I smiled, gave the woman a hug before taking enough rings for every Strigoi and one for myself. I placed it on my finger and I didn't feel anything but I trusted Riya about them. After all, she'd been right about too many things for me to start doubting her now.

I ran through town searching for everyone and giving them their rings.

"Man I haven't seen these things since that first time she left town for an errand." Luka laughed. "How could I have forgotten about them? Good timing Roza, some of us were beginning to lose control and that wouldn't have been smart. Go take them to the Morganville punks, I think Michael is about it lose it."

"Where is he?" I asked startled by the information.

"I think he went into the woods with the other three. They're trying to help him out."

"Thanks." I smiled at him before dashing into the woods. It didn't take long to find them; after all, they were in a fight. Michael was fighting Shane who was no doubt trying to get his friend under control. Carefully I slipped the ring onto his finger and pinned Michael to the ground until he calmed. I handed the other three their rings and they put them on without question, even Shane.


	4. Chapter 3

_**Sorry for the incredibly late updates and all but exams have not been nice to me... this is a shorter chapter compared to the others but I hope you guys like it all the same X3**_

* * *

3

The rest of the day flew by and it felt better than any other day since Riya's death. People worked better, they weren't moping around any more and if I listened closely enough, I could hear most of them humming a song while working. Listening to Luka hum was one of the funniest things in the world. I'd met some pretty bad singers before in my life but Luka was just utterly hopeless. Every note was off key but that sure as hell didn't stop him from joining in with the singing.

"Luka shut up!" Zana complained slapping the back of his head hard enough to make him have a face plant with the soil.

"Hey I should have the right to sing too," he whined rubbing where she'd hit him.

"Hey Michael, you're a singer! Sing us a song!" I turned to the blonde vampire remembering that he was a guitarist and singer back at the school Lissa and I went to in the human world. Girls had been tripping over themselves to win his favour and Eve was the one who won.

"Uh…" he said uncomfortably.

"Aw come on dude, you're part of the family now. Or are you just too chicken?" I taunted grinning at him. I knew that would strike a nerve. His expression turned defiant and he crossed his arms.

"I don't have my guitar," he stated.

"But I have one inside," one of the ex-guardians piped up running to his house. Moments later he returned holding a guitar in his hand. I recognised him as the one who ran the club in the town. "I have all sorts of instruments inside," he grinned.

"Now there's no way out Michael. Come on, just one song." I urged. The guitar notes echoed in the air as he tuned it and began playing.

_When I see your smile_  
_Tears roll down my face I can't replace_  
_And now that I'm strong I have figured out_  
_How this world turns cold and it breaks through my soul_  
_And I know I'll find deep inside me I can be the one_

_I will never let you fall_  
_I'll stand up with you forever_  
_I'll be there for you through it all_

_Even if saving you sends me to heaven_

_It's okay. It's okay. It's okay._

His words lifted the air and people began getting up in couples to dance with one another. Luka and Zana were first to lead off dancing in circles around the town fountain in the natural camp fire light.

The younger kids of the town jumped up enthusiastically to dance alongside Luka and Zana. Alan stood up from beside me and held his hand out with a smile. I beamed up at him and took his hand. He twirled me several times around the fountain and I found joy coursing through me for the first time since her death. I watched and passed smiles at Mark and Sofia as they danced with their children.

_Seasons are changing_  
_And waves are crashing_  
_And stars are falling all for us_  
_Days grow longer and nights grow shorter_  
_I can show you I'll be the one_

_I will never let you fall_  
_I'll stand up with you forever_  
_I'll be there for you through it all_  
_Even if saving you sends me to heaven_

_Cuz you're my, you're my, my, my true love, my whole heart_  
_Please don't throw that away_  
_Cuz I'm here for you_  
_Please don't walk away and_  
_Please tell me you'll stay woah, stay woah_

_Use me as you will_  
_Pull my strings just for a thrill_  
_And I know I'll be okay_  
_Though my skies are turning grey_

_I will never let you fall_  
_I'll stand up with you forever_  
_I'll be there for you through it all_  
_Even if saving you sends me to heaven_

_I will never let you fall_  
_I'll stand up with you forever_  
_I'll be there for you through it all_  
_Even if saving you sends me to heaven_

When the song ended everyone clapped and cheered Michael. From his expression I knew that he would be blushing if he still could. He gave shy smiles but I could tell that he was happy. He was a musician who loved to bring joy to those who listened to his music after all. The rest of the evening flew by and I headed back to the house to sleep alone for the umpteenth time in the past week.

"Hey Rose." Adrian smiled as soon as I appeared in the usual field that we spoke in whenever I was dreaming.

"Hey Adrian, how're you guys holding up at your end?" I asked giving him a hug for a greeting. Ever since his meeting with Riya, Adrian's somewhat serious and flirtatious pursuit of me had stopped. Our relationship changed to that of a normal friendship and I could hug him without giving him false hopes. I liked how our relationship had turned out. It felt nice being able to hug him so naturally.

"Lissa was distraught." Adrian sighed.

"I know, I remember feeling it." I nodded. "But you guys are safe for now right?"

"Yeah, we're safe."

"There hasn't been any more attacks?"

"Attacks? What're you talking about?" he stared at me frantically.

"Adrian, there's no point in trying to hide it. I know that you guys were attacked once a while ago. I saw it in Lissa's head. Christian was unconscious, Mia got a concussion and you helped Lissa heal Christian right? Well done for that by the way." I smiled.

"If you wanted to know about how we were dealing on our end, why didn't you just jump into her head?" he asked curiously.

"Well, for one thing it's an intrusion of her privacy and I would rather not intrude unless I had to. Secondly, I'd rather not get caught in her head while she's having sex with Christian. I'd been through that way too many times to count and I'm glad that I haven't had to witness any of that since leaving the school." I scoffed. "Seriously, feeling what my friend feels while she has sex with her boyfriend is not my idea of fun." I shuddered when I first suffered through that traumatising experience. I was scarred for life.

"I suppose that's a good enough reason." Adrian laughed patting my back sympathetically. "So how are you doing?"

"We're actually doing alright now. I found a letter that she left behind in the woods and that's certainly cheered everyone up a lot. For a while the morale had dropped but now everything better. I wouldn't say that it's perfect, after all this is her town. Nothing would be perfect without her around." I sighed.

"Rose, I know this is going to sound insensitive but we've been talking on our end. Have you ever considered the possibility that she might not be dead?" Adrian asked hesitantly. My head snapped up and my eyes met his. There was no humour there, his seriousness stunned me. I couldn't remember ever seeing him so serious before.

"I… Adrian, to be honest with you I've hoped. I really have but I'm not sure she could've survived that. The whole fight began with her being shot in the stomach with a silver bullet. Then throughout the fight, I've noticed that she accumulated more and more wounds. I'm not sure how many times she'd been hit with silver but I saw it. The stake was driven through her chest and I felt the connection with her snap. Before she'd always been a lingering presence in my mind just like how Lissa is, but when she fell, when I saw her disappear into the sea, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. And believe me I've tried since that day to see whether it was just faint or something. I honestly cannot feel her anymore…" I shook my head. I looked up at him curiously. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just that. Lissa was the one who mentioned it. She just seemed so un-killable that it was hard to believe she was actually gone." Adrian smiled sadly.

"I know Adrian. Really I do. After all I'd witnessed first hand just how hard it was to make her stay down." I smiled grimly. I remembered about the fight I'd had with her before the siege on the town.

"Hey, do you have any input on how we can defend ourselves against Moroi and dhampirs?"

"You want to do what?" he stared at me incredulously.

"Adrian, last time there were definitely Moroi fighting alongside the guardians who attacked us. I want to know whether you have any input on how we can fight against them."

"Other than using silver and sunlight, I can't really think of anything." Adrian frowned. "Would you like me to do some research for you?"

"Yes please." I nodded.

"Wow, the infamous Rose Hathaway said 'please' when asking for a favour," he teased with a smirk and I punched him in the shoulder playfully. I was surprised to feel the muscle when I hit him.

"Adrian."

"Yep?"

"Have you been going to the gym?" I asked him.

He blushed. Adrian Ivashkov actually blushed and looked away from me. "You have!" I pointed at him. "You've been training!"

"It's only natural, I mean if we're going to be running for our lives any day now, might as well be prepared. After all, Eddie was the only skilled fighter in the group and Christian was the only one with effective magic against both Moroi and dhampir. As much as I like Mia, water wouldn't do much against Moroi. Not unless you keep them suffocated for a long time and you'd have to go at it for a long time." Adrian scoffed. "She has however been learning new tricks though. Now she's learnt to be on the offensive with her water tricks. Seriously, I never knew you could fight so well with water."

"Well I remember Mia being really cheerful when I suggested she sound learn to fight after that incident at Spokane." I agreed. "So you guys have been learning to fight?"

"Well, yeah but not all of us have been that successful," he sighed.

"You're talking about Lissa right?"

"It's not that she doesn't try. Because she does, she tries more than the rest of us but the only thing she's improved in is running. And boy can she run. I remember trying to chase her yesterday and I can't remember the last time I had to run so bloody fast." Adrian commented. "Christian's actually not that bad of a fighter either, especially since Tasha's trained him personally alongside with your mum."

"My mum?" I stared at him not believing what I'd just heard. "You're joking. Christian's taking lessons from my mum?"

"Yeah, it doesn't seem so weird for him to be learning since the last attack and all. It was actually rather well planned to be honest. Since the last attack, we've all stepped up with the training and stuff. We have a legitimate reason to train with the dhampirs without raising suspicion. We've also trained in secret too so when the time comes, we'll be ready." Adrian smiled proudly.

"How much training have you had today?" I asked him.

"Not much, there were too many people around." Adrian sighed.

"Alright then, up you get." I gestured as I stood up patting myself down.

"Rose what're you doing?"

"I'm going to be your tutor." I grinned at him.

"Don't joke." Adrian glared at me.

"I'm not. Come on, I'm sure you've wanted to kick my ass."

"I've wanted to smack that ass of yours but never kick it." Adrian scoffed but got up nonetheless.

I threw a few punches his way and he dodged most of them but I still managed to get one through. I had to admit, I never would've guessed that Adrian could be a good fighter. But he was actually stronger than I'd anticipated. He might've been strong, but I still had all the training I'd had here Russia under my belt. I'd had the best teachers combined so there was no way he would be able to beat me. Not at this stage anyway since he was only a beginner at this.

For the rest of the dream session, I continued to give him tips for how he could train with the others and I was strict with his stance too. There were a few points I was strict on when it came to hand to hand combat and one of them was the stance. Without it, your opponent would be able to pin you more than necessary no matter how strong you might be.

By the end of it Adrian was looking a little battered and he would probably wake up more tired than when he'd fallen asleep. Well, at least he'd carry the knowledge he'd learnt over with him when he woke and he'd be able to teach the others what I'd taught him too. We hugged each other before we both faded away.

I woke up and the first thing I noticed was that I wasn't alone in the room. Without another thought, I jumped up and tackled the stranger. I pinned the intruder to the floor pressing down on him with all my weight. A soft chuckled echoed and I gasped in delight when I recognised the intruder. He looked a little worn out but still as gorgeous as ever.

"Did you miss me that much Roza?" he chuckled.

"You didn't even tell me you were going." I scolded before leaning down with a kiss. It was brief but passionate. I sighed in his embrace.

"You've done a good job with the town by the way. I was surprised when I saw the wards and so were our visitors who were willing to help."

"Wards?"

"The ones against Moroi."

"Oh right those ones!" I suddenly remembered the ones that Mark set up with the help of the Moroi in the town. "What do they do any way?"

"It zaps them. A doorway could be opened but we hadn't known there would be wards so two of them are rather stunned at the moment."

"Oops." I smiled apologetically.

"It's a smart move Roza, not one you should be apologising for." Dimitri shook his head. "As much as I love you, don't you think that you should let me stand? There is a lot to get through today. I managed to bring back more people than I thought possible and there are people you have to meet." I didn't fail to notice the mischievous glint in his eyes that had my body trembling in desire.

I got up pulling him up with me and we stood in each other's embrace for a moment before I heard a loud shout. "Dimitri Belikov get your ass over here!" Luka shouted from the main house.

Dimitri looked out of the window for a moment before chuckling again. "I think we should save the others from the impending doom. And Roza, why do you still seem rather tired?"

"I've been training with Adrian." I told him and continued when I saw the blank look on his face. "They've started training in secret so I thought I might give them a hand."

"Good idea." Dimitri nodded. "Especially since there is a high chance that the Queen might arrange something against them."

"Adrian's actually not that bad. Who knows add a few more years of training and he'd be a pretty decent guardian himself." I grinned.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, did I just hear you compliment Adrian Ivashkov?" he teased with an incredulous tone.

"Oh shut up comrade." I punched him lightly on the shoulder.

We headed for the main house before Luka decided to collect us personally. I was filling Dimitri in on what had been happening in the town while he was gone when I walked into the kitchen which also happened to be the meeting room somehow. I'd barely taken two steps in when hugs bombarded me and girls were squealing in Russian at such high speed I couldn't even contemplate on trying to understand. During the past week while he was gone, I'd actually attempted to learn some Russian but these girls were speaking way to fast for me to understand.

Dimitri replied in Russian and he gently but firmly tugged me out of their grasp. I stared at the visitors with a stunned gaze and Dimitri smirked at me.

"Roza, I would like you to meet my family."

I stared. I just stared at him blankly as his words sunk in. I looked back at the squealing visitors again, well there was one person who wasn't screaming and I supposed she was his grandmother. I stared back and forth between Dimitri and his family. He had to be joking. This was his family? My shocked stare turning into a glare as I rounded on him.

"Dimitri you made me meet your family in my pyjamas?" I all but screeched tackling him to the floor as all sense flew out of the window.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I tackled him to the ground shaking his shoulders. My face was burning from embarrassment and disbelief! I couldn't believe that Dimitri was doing this to me! He knew that his family was here and yet he didn't mention I should get changed?! This was just unfair. You could bring on the Strigoi any time! Anything would be better than this! At that particular moment all I wanted to do was dig my own grave. It didn't help that Dimitri was still smiling at me with that unfair devious heart stopping smile of his!

"Roza, it's alright, we don't really mind," someone piped up and slowly I gathered myself. I let him go but I still glared at him. I noticed his family staring at me in curiosity and amusement.

"Um… that wasn't the best of first impressions." I coughed awkwardly. "Hi, I'm Rose Hathaway." I smiled.

"We know, Dimka has spoken lots about you in his letters before the incident and when we finally saw him again last week it was hard to believe. We had all been prepared to stake him but eventually he managed to talk sense into us."

"He didn't manage to talk sense into us. Gran did."

"Girls, don't even start on an argument. We're guests in this house."

"How are you guests?" I asked. "This is a Belikov holiday house, it's your house. Technically speaking I would be intruder, not you guys."

"Ah but we haven't been here for over 20 years. I'm Olena, his mother." She gave me a tight hug before letting me go.

Next up was Karolina, the eldest sister. She had two kids, a baby girl called Ciara and a boy called Paul.

Then it was his pregnant sister Sonya.

Last but not least was his teenage sister called Viktoria. She was the bubbliest one of the lot and I could tell that she was going to be quite the trouble maker of the town. She somewhat reminded me of myself before I'd met Dimitri.

"This is my grandmother, Yeva." Dimitri introduced and I had to suppress a shudder at the cold stare she gave me. Despite her frail appearance, her eyes were hard as steel and it was as though she was peering into my soul. She muttered something in Russian and I'd only caught the name 'Riya' in her phrase but whatever it was must've been harsh because Dimitri looked angry. Actually, it was more than that, Dimitri; the Zen god who always had a tight lock on his emotions actually looked pissed.

He muttered something in reply and there was tension in the room. "Have you really killed that many Strigoi?" little Paul asked. "You don't look that tough." The look he gave me made me smile. It was full of the type of confidence little kids had.

"Really? Let's see if you can beat me then?" I challenged lightly and playfully charged at him. Surprisingly he dodged my move but I moved faster than he could interpret and caught him in my arms lifting him up into the air. Having done so many exercises with weights, lifting him up was practically effortless. "I'm sorry, I would offer food but I'm a horrid cook and I don't think that there's any supply in the house either. I tend to go down to Sofia's for meals. Dimitri where are Cain and Konstantin and Aleksandr?"

"They're in town having a meeting with the mayor with the others that we managed to bring." Dimitri told me with a smile as he watched me handle Paul who was laughing in delight.

"Shall we head down to town so we can pick up some food?" I suggested.

"Is there anything fun to do in town?" Viktoria asked.

"Well, there are people around if you get what I mean." I winked at her earning me a giggle from the teenager.

"Let's go!" Paul and Viktoria cheered and Dimitri chuckled from beside me.

"Well I guess that's settled," he smiled at me and we headed as one huge group towards town.

"Has Valentine come back yet or given any news?" I asked.

"Not that I know of," he shook his head. "When did she leave?"

"Not long after you I don't think. She was fighting with Luka when I woke up that first day and then I asked her to go find Riya's other contacts." I told him.

"I see that Riya's trained you well." Dimitri smiled proudly. "You've managed to keep this town going so well."

"She's been giving me help beyond the grave Dimitri." I smiled sadly.

"What'd you mean?"

"Before she died, I think she knew that things might go down badly. So she'd gone to Adrian and the others before hand to give them a contact she knows they can trust in Los Angeles in case the Queen started attacking them or something. Not only that but she left a letter. She left a letter at the place she knows I'll end up at if I had no idea what to do. She left a letter, a music player and a present. The letter told me about the wards and the rings to help keep everyone sane in her absence."

"She left a present?" Dimitri asked.

"Yeah, I'll show you later. Have the others given you a ring yet?" I asked.

"No, I came straight here when I arrived," he shook his head.

"Then we need to stop by the hospital to pick one up." I nodded. I felt excitement bubble through me when I thought about the people they'd brought back to help us. Perhaps hope wasn't lost after all. Riya had many connections across the world and she had enough friends she could trust to protect this town. Her family.

"This place has changed so much." Olena gasped as we stepped into the town. People were bustling around busily with whatever work they had to do.

"I'm sorry that I have to leave you all so soon but there is a lot I'm going to have to do today so I'll see you all back at the house tonight." I smiled at them as I set Paul down. I watched as he hurried back to Karolina's side but he did give me a cheerful smile.

I headed to the hospital first with Dimitri to pick up a ring. "Hey Zana, have the other three picked up a ring yet?" By the other three I was referring to Cain, Konstantin and Aleksandr.

"Yeah, they picked them up this morning." Zana nodded as she passed me. "Sorry, I would stop and chat but the supplies arrived today so I've got a lot of sorting to do. A lot more arrived today than usual. There's some stuff I haven't seen in a while but I've heard of."

"Have fun Zana." I laughed as I headed to the town hall where I knew the new comers would be.

There was around a dozen dhampirs, either ex-guardians or ones who never received a Promise Mark like me. On top of that there were around six Moroi or so. One of them, a Moroi woman stared at me with shocked eyes. She whispered something to one of the dhampirs and his eyes snapped to mine with a frantic glance. It was a movement neither Dimitri nor I missed.

"Is there a problem?" Dimitri asked cautiously.

"You… you're Shadow-Kissed aren't you?" the Moroi asked.

"Yes, but that doesn't explain the horrified expressions you've got." I frowned.

"Is your charge here?" the dhampir demanded.

"No, but –"

"You must go back to your charge!" the dhampir stared at me. "How far apart are you?"

"She's all the way back in the States." I told them calmly.

"That far? How are either of you okay while you're so far apart?" they demanded.

"She's safe."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I know the people around them and I know they'll keep her safe." I told them stiffly. "I'm Rose Hathaway. You two are?"

"Oksana," the Moroi told me.

"Mark." And that was going to confuse the hell out of me. Mark, Sofia's Mark just grimaced when he realised that there was going to be confusion. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Wow this is going to be interesting. Do you have a surname or something?" I asked.

"Clune."

"Do you mind if I just call you Clune because there's already a Mark here so I'd get really confused…" I asked.

"Not that all." Clune shook his head. "Anyway, you should listen to us. People are bound for a reason; you shouldn't be so far away from your bondmate. How do you expect to protect your bondmate if you're so far away?"

"As I've already mentioned, she has people around her who will protect her well." I told him.

"Your… your bondmate is the last Dragomir?" Oksana asked with a stunned voice. I stared at her. How could she have known? I hadn't mentioned anything.

"Forgive us, Oksana can sometimes brush someone's mind without meaning to." Clune filled me in. "If your bondmate is the Dragomir princess, that's all the more reason for you to go back to her."

"Look, I don't mean to sound rude but I know what I'm doing." I had to refrain from glaring at them. I hated it when people preached to me, especially strangers.

"Do you?" they asked.

"Yes." It took all the control I had not to hiss the word out.

"I'm sorry Oksana, Clune, but Roza does know what she's doing and she is definitely needed here more than they do at that school." Dimitri cut in firmly before an argument could break out. "She was chosen as the leader of the town and if Riya had thought that it was necessary for her to be with her bondmate as you call it, then Riya would've mentioned it earlier. Since she had never expressed such a concern, I'm sure things are fine this way."

"It's just unheard of…" Oksana and Clune trailed off as they stared at one another.

"So are friendly Strigoi." I pointed out. They stared at me for a moment before they both nodded.

"I apologise for being so insistent. What goes on between you and your bondmate is none of our business." Oksana smiled apologetically but I could still see the disapproval in Clune's eyes.

I got a better grip on my temper and explained to everyone how things worked in this town. Mark, the one I'd placed in charge of the wards explained to the Moroi that to prevent future injuries, they'll need to provide a little of their blood in the wards so that the wards would recognise them. I let him take care of the Moroi while I explained the different duties to the dhampirs.

By the end of the day, everyone had their own duties and would know what to do the next day. Dimitri and I walked slowly at a leisurely pace back towards the house. We were halfway through the woods when I plucked up the courage to ask him what Yeva had said to make him so angry.

He stiffened at the question and he stopped walking. I stopped with him and with a heavy sigh he tugged me towards him wrapping his arms around me. "I missed this while I was away. Just simply having you in my arms…"

I wrapped my arms around him with a smile and buried my face in his chest. "So did I."

"Yeva is a hard woman, despite what she says or does there is a reason why people respect her. She's hard to impress and because she has not seen your potential, what you can do, she does not think that you are worthy."

"Worthy? For you right?"

"Yes," he nodded.

"Was that it?" I asked him incredulously. "That was what made you mad? Come on Dimitri, that's perfectly natural! I mean, I'm always asking myself how in the world I managed to get you."

"Roza, you are beautiful and intelligent and strong. There is no question whether you deserve me or not. Never doubt that."

"I never doubted it. I just count myself extremely lucky."

"As do I as Riya had told me many times when you are asleep. She is so proud of you Roza and she loved you as though you were her own sister."

"She did?" I asked feeling tears prick my eyes.

"Yes, she also said that you were very easy to tease."

"Brilliant." I muttered sarcastically. Then I remembered something else. "But your grandma didn't just think that I was unworthy of you did she? I heard her mention Riya."

Dimitri stiffened even more and released another heavy sigh. "As much as I respect Yeva, she'd stepped over the line that time. Not only did she disrespect you but she also disrespected Riya."

"How?" I urged.

"Yeva said that she could not see why Riya and I risked our lives for you." Dimitri commented coolly.

I stiffened. I could understand Dimitri's anger towards the woman. Although I doubted my own strengths every day, I trusted Riya and although I never would've wished for her death, I respected her judgements no matter how foolish they seemed. Riya of all people knew exactly what she was doing. She was the type to never make big mistakes. She'd even made sure that the town would be safe even after her death. No matter what I felt about her death, she knew what she was doing and that's all that mattered.

"No wonder you got pissed." I smiled tightening my grip around him. "It's alright; it's only natural for her to think that way. After all, your grandma knows nothing about me and she loves you and Riya more."

"That still doesn't give the any right to say something like that."

"It might not but there's no point in holding it against her. Many of us wish that those fights ended differently but there's nothing we can do." I smiled when I realised that was one of the lines in Riya's letter. "'The best anyone can do is live it to the max and just give it our best shot to continue surviving.'" I recited.

"Where did you hear that from?" Dimitri chuckled.

"Riya. Now I see where your lecturing character comes from. She's a pretty impressive Zen master herself." I laughed.

"You may be right about that." Dimitri agreed.

"Let's head back before your family starts wondering whether we've decided to ditch them. I don't want that grandma of yours to disapprove of me anymore than she already does."

"She can disapprove all she wants but she'll find that this is one battle she won't win." Dimitri smiled at me before leaning down to capture my lips for a deep kiss. I sighed in content leaning against his firm body. We stayed in the woods for a few more moments just remaining in each other's presence before finally heading back to the house.

When we got back, the sight was quite comical to say the least. The Morganville gang were watching the centre of the kitchen with amusement from the sofas. Zana was laughing along with Konstantin. Paul had somehow decided that Luka was his mountain to climb on and Luka was trying to be careful not to hurt the kid while trying to dislodge him. Cain was the baby girl's victim it seemed and Viktoria was flirting with Aleksandr outrageously.

Sonya was sitting at the table reading a book but she was peering over the edge of the book in amusement as she watched with a smile tugging her lips. Karolina and Olena were at the stove cooking and Yeva was… well she was nowhere to be seen actually.

"Rose!" Paul and Viktoria beamed when they saw Dimitri and I walk into the kitchen with our hands linked.

"Wosie!" little Ciara squealed and reached out towards me while hanging off Cain. He grimaced and kept a light but secure hold on her to make sure she didn't fall.

"Hey little Ciara." I smiled lifting her from his arms to relieve him. She giggled in the cute way little babies do and I swayed her backwards and forwards as I strolled towards Paul and Viktoria.

"You seem to do quite well with kids." Sonya teased, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Well, Sofia has kids and I hang out with her family quite a lot since I consult with Mark about a lot of things about the town." I smiled back.

"Really? You'd make a brilliant mum. You seem to be handling things quite well despite all that's happened." Sonya commented lightly but I got her hint. I almost tripped at her statement and Dimitri shot her an incredulous look.

I could tell without having to look in the mirror that my face was completely red. Anyone would be at that kind of implication.

"Just stating facts, Dimka." Sonya smirked the way Belikovs do as she resumed reading.

Viktoria was practically in tears from the laughter and I noticed Olena and Karolina turn around from their cooking to give Dimitri and me a glance.

"Anyway, I don't even know whether that would be possible." I coughed awkwardly remembering the conversation I had with Zana a while ago. Wow that felt like it was years ago when it was only less than two months ago since I left St. Vladimir's… I'd known these people for less than two months and yet everyone here felt like a tight knit family. All that was missing was Riya, my mum and my friends from the Academy and everything would be perfect. With or without an eminent attack.

"That is true." Sonya nodded with a sad smile as she touched a hand to her round stomach.

Looking at Olena again, if Dimitri never told me of how he came into the world, I never would've guessed that she was a blood whore. She looked healthy and well taken care of. She didn't look like someone who'd been abused. She looked like a happy mother, a mother who was proud of her children. Closing my eyes I could imagine Dimitri growing up in this family.

I could imagine him bickering with his family the way he was now, being forced to do all sorts of things by his sisters. I could imagine him helping his mother and grandmother whenever they needed or wanted it. I could also imagine Dimitri as the strong kid who beat up his father to protect his family. I could picture him moving without as much skill but still a torrent of strength and sheer masculinity.

I opened my eyes again when I felt someone wrap their arms around me. Without looking I knew it was Dimitri hugging me as I swung Ciara gently in my arms.

"Viktoria, go find Yeva and tell her it's dinner. I think she's in her room." Olena instructed as she began serving food into bowls and plates for everyone.

Viktoria dashed off from the kitchen and I could hear her footsteps thumping on the floorboards of the house.

"I hope she doesn't walk around like that during training and stuff. She wouldn't do so well on the stealth side of things." I commented with a grin.

"Viktoria is the loudest of the family." Dimitri smirked.

"I can tell, she reminds me of someone." I smiled as I placed Ciara into his arms as I moved to offer Olena and Karolina some help with the plates.

"Really? Who?" Karolina asked curiously.

"Me before I met Dimitri and learned discipline." I grinned. "That man sure taught me a lot."

"No doubt." Karolina coughed into her hand discreetly but everyone heard what she was implying.

"Karolina!" Olena chastised and the woman held her hands in defensively.

I smiled at Olena and shook my head. "It's alright; I used to make comments like that all the time."

"And you never bothered being discreet about them either." Dimitri rolled his eyes.

"Hey, you've never complained before comrade." I smiled cheekily nudging his side with my hip as I walked past.

"I never complained, no, but I did tell you that they were inappropriate to speak of so loudly." Dimitri pointed out. Damn that man, he always had a way of beating me somehow.

"Okay you win that round." I huffed dramatically as I set the plates down.

"Surely I've taught you better than to let the ladies do the work Dimitri." Olena commented with a sly glance. Dimitri immediately blanched and set Ciara into Karolina's arms before setting the table in record time due to his speed.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"It is amazing what you've done with this town." Olena complimented. "I would've thought that with its founder gone this place would be in chaos. You'll make a great leader Roza."

"Thank you but I couldn't have done any of this without Riya's help. If it wasn't for her who built the trust within these people and people's respect for her, none of this would've worked out nearly as well." I shook her head. "She's incredible."

"She is isn't she?" Olena smiled sadly.

"Was she a close family member?"

"She was my eldest brother's daughter."

"So quite close."

"Despite that fact, we didn't see much of each other since she entered the academy here in Russia. She was a bright kid and she passed everything with flying colours."

"She's the greatest Guardian I know. Before Dimitri I didn't realise that there was someone even more just than he was. I guess I know where he gets it from now." I smiled ruefully.

"What is with the heavy atmosphere in here?" Viktoria asked as she bounded into the room with Yeva beside her. I didn't miss the calculating glare she sent my way. Dimitri noticed too and muttered something loud enough for the woman to hear.

"Dimitri!" Olena chastised. "Not in the kitchen."

"Sorry," he said stiffly.

"Let's eat!" Viktoria and I chimed to break the tension. We stared at each other for a moment before laughing.

"That was done in perfect synch!" she giggled.

"Impressive." I winked and we all settled around the table. All through dinner everyone was animated with conversation. Well… everyone but one. Yeva. She was silent during the whole of dinner and every now and then I caught her scrutinising me before something tugged my attention away from her for conversation. I couldn't help but feel as though I was isolating her from her own family.

After dinner, everyone retired to the living room of the mansion and I cleaned the dishes with Olena. "Did Yeva see much of Riya?" I asked suddenly and instantly regretted it. "Sorry, I don't mean to intrude."

"You're not intruding Roza. Do not worry." Olena smiled warmly and placed a soap covered hand on my cheek. "You are as much part of the family as anyone else is now. As for your question, no. But she does still love her all the same as one of her granddaughters. Yeva regrets not having had the chance to know her more and she often says things she doesn't mean. She is quite the stubborn woman you see and she finds it irrelevant to express feelings properly. It takes a lot to gain her respect Roza but I know without a doubt that you will gain it. What you have done with this place is impressive no matter what you say. Without you here, there would be no negotiator between the town's people and the Strigoi. There would be no one to keep the Strigoi on the right path after her death. Her death I know was a great surprise for everyone and I know that they are still mourning. But they are all willing to continue their previous life style because you are able to remind them of what Riya would've wanted. You are a reminder of her Roza. A strong willed young lady."

I stared at Dimitri's mother and felt tears prickling at my eyes. Now I knew where Dimitri got his ability to smooth talk people came from. Her arms wrapped around me and she smoothed my hair as I cried against her chest. It felt oddly comforting since it was not a gesture I was familiar with.

"Give it time Roza, she will acknowledge you." Olena smiled warmly at me when I finally stopped crying. It took me a moment to realise that that was how mums were like for their children. If I'd given my mum the chance, would she have reacted the same way? No. Knowing my mum, she would've gotten into a fight with Yeva. But then again, I wouldn't have it any other way. After all these years, I've finally come to appreciate and understand my mum and it was an odd feeling but suddenly I couldn't wait for all this to be over. I wanted to apologise to her for being so difficult. I wanted to tell her that I wanted to be a daughter she could be proud of. I had to hope that I would one day get the chance to tell her that. Because I had a feeling that if something went wrong, one of us if not both would go down and I would be leaving her without ever telling her how I really felt. I couldn't bare that thought. I owed our relationship that much.

"Roza are you finished?" Dimitri asked as he strolled into the room.

"Yep." I nodded. "Thank you for your help Mrs. Belikov."

"Call me Olena, Roza," she smiled as she shook her head. "See you in the morning."

"Have a good evening." I waved as I walked out with Dimitri. He slipped his hand into mine and intertwined our fingers. I leaned against him slightly simply basking in his presence. "Tell me about what happened while you were gone. How did you convince them about your sanity?"

"Shall I start from the beginning?"

"Yes please." I nodded eagerly.

"It was in the middle of the night after I'd made sure you'd fallen asleep that I'd left with Cain to visit my family. The journey itself was easy but once I'd arrived in Baia I had to be careful since the people there would recognise me. I stayed in the shadows to make sure I was unseen. Cain took Aleksandr and Konstantin away from the town to an isolated area before breaking the news to them."

"Why did they have to go to an isolated area?" I asked curiously.

"Were you there when the pair found her again?"

"Yeah."

"How did they react?"

"They were absolutely ecstatic and Aleksandr even kissed her."

"Well imagine being told for the second time that their most important person is dead but this time being permanently dead."

"I'd go nuts." I said as I imagined someone telling me that Dimitri had been killed a second time and this time there was no bringing him back. I knew that, had that happened to me, I would be furious and I'd first try to hunt down those who brought my love down before falling into the depths of grief. The news must've been so much harder for them since they'd already suffered through it once.

"Exactly. Konstantin was horror struck but Aleksandr being the more… impulsive of the two nearly went on a killing spree. It took a while but we managed to bring him back to his senses again. Then pretty much all hell broke loose when we headed back to town. Some rogue drop outs found us by chance and tried to take us down. We didn't quite know what to do so we simply knocked them out. There was nothing else we could've done. We took them back to Baia and decided to confront everyone starting with my family. Since I was their son, it was thought best for me to be the one who approached them. Everyone was stunned to say the least, Karolina and Sonya rounded up the kids to safety, Viktoria shouted for the whole place to help and after a little fighting Yeva appeared and told them all to stop.

After everyone had calmed down, we gathered some people who were willing to help out and the journey back was fairly uneventful. I caught up with my family and that was about it."

"How are Aleksandr and Konstantin now? I haven't spoken to them yet." I asked.

"They're holding up but they could be better." Dimitri sighed. "It's to be expected though after all that's happened. To have to lose her again must be hard on them."

"It would be like either of us losing one another." I said as I looked up at the stars.

"Which is what would've happened had Riya not interfered." Dimitri stared at me with a piercing gaze. The fury was suddenly there in his eyes. Anger at the guardians who had attacked us, anger and resentment that he hadn't been able to help more, to prevent her death.

"So in the end it was down to either you going on a rampage with Riya still alive or Aleksandr and Cain going insane with Riya gone."

"Either way it wasn't going to end well." Dimitri sighed in defeat.

"I guess not." I agreed. When we got back to the sweet two story cabin on the other side of the lake, I showed him the present that Riya gave me. The beautiful rose made from glass. Love dawned on Dimitri's expression and his eyes gleamed with warmth.

"It's beautiful, it's so like her to make something like this," he whispered as he drew me close to his body. He slipped the rose into my hair so that it balanced on my ear and gazed down at me. "She's always had a knack for such delicacies. An undying and strong rose. This present speaks volumes of what she thought of you. Your purity, your strong will, your simple elegance and beauty and how easy it is to read you."

"Riya always puts all her thoughts and feelings into things doesn't she? Most people tend to miss such subtle hints."

"She was well known for such discreet messages other than her guardian title."

Dimitri and I stared at one another for a few lengthy moments before he dipped his head down to claim my lips. At first our kiss was sweet and romantic but then all of a sudden it was as though neither of us could get close enough. His arms wrapped around me tightly but not so tight that it hurt and I clung to him with equal need. We broke away only for me to catch a quick breath. A mischievous feeling glossed over me and I gave him a sultry gaze as I gently pushed him onto the bed. I crawled on top of him and set the rose down on the side table. I kissed him again more urgently this time and our hands and lips explored each other's body again as though we'd been starved for a long period of time. Soon our clothes were scattered around the room, neither of us caring about the shredded items of clothing.

Just as I was about to be lost to oblivion, the heavy sense of fear and haste slammed into me. The feeling was so unexpected I gasped and the last I could remember about remaining in my head was Dimitri stopping his ministrations. Suddenly I was zapped into Lissa's head, something that hadn't happened for so long. Not since that time she was attacked.

Again I saw everything from her eyes and I could feel her every emotion, hear her every thought, feel everything that she felt and saw everything she saw. Her emotions rolled through me in tides and I knew that without a doubt I would still be feeling them when I returned to my own mind. But right now I didn't have the time to worry or think about it because right now… the gang was being attacked again. This time it was at a place I never thought possible. The attack was at the Royal Courts…

Fire spiralled around her but not touching. Christian was making sure of that. The pair was running down the corridor and I noticed with pride that Adrian had been right; Lissa had definitely improved on her running. She was nowhere near out of breath and yet Christian looked as though he was struggling a little to keep up.

"Lissa! Christian! Drop!" Adrian's voice hollered and the pair immediately followed the command and dropped with a practiced reaction. Lissa's movement was still slightly awkward and she felt more pain than she needed to but she bore with it because she knew that there was no time for her to care about such trivial injuries. Her frantic thoughts flew into my mind again and most currently revolved around finding a way out of the palace. It was obvious to them all that this attack was the warning that the Queen was making her move against them. Otherwise the Strigoi shouldn't have been able to breach the courts so easily let alone penetrate it so stealthily. The alarm hadn't sounded until the Strigoi were already within the courts and many guardians were already fighting for their lives. They were going to have to leave the courts today.

The reason why the pair had to duck so abruptly was because a Strigoi had found an opening in the flames and had been reaching for them. Adrian who had been near saw and shouted the warning. Lissa stared up not able to help the fear that she felt and watched hopelessly as Adrian drove a stake into the Strigoi's chest with a practiced motion. For a moment I wondered how Adrian was able to hold a silver stake, and then I noticed the gloves that he was wearing. Concentrating a little on Lissa's hands, I realised that she was wearing them too and it didn't take much thought for me to know that she had a silver stake in her possession too just in case.

I almost couldn't believe it, the real fight had started. Always bitching about the Queen was one thing, but actually witnessing her trying to assassinate people she felt threatened of was another thing. Despite the fact that we were all prepared for something like this to happen, it was still hard to take in and accept. Lissa's disbelief and incredulity plagued her mind yet she forced herself to move on.

Adrian swiftly removed the stake from the Strigoi's chest and gently took hold of her arm to lift her up just as Christian got up. "Are you two alright? How were things on your end?" he asked with a concealed worried expression.

"There wasn't even any warning. It just happened. One minute Christian and I were quite comfortable watching a movie, the next a guardian crashed into our room having been thrown in by a Strigoi." Lissa reported. "Christian's been clearing a path for us through these flames. Why on earth would they set fire to the courts if the Strigoi are harmed from it as well?"

"It's because they're pawns." Christian scowled.

"The real targets are the Moroi. It's to highlight how dangerous Strigoi are to the Moroi. The Queen is no doubt doing this to reiterate that Strigoi are deadly creatures. The fire would be trapping both the Strigoi and the Moroi making escape difficult for all of them. The last I checked there weren't many fire specialists around here making this the perfect time to plot such an attack." Eddie stated as he appeared with Mia by his side. Both of them were drenched in water probably to reduce the possibility for their clothes to catch alight. I noticed how Eddie's clothes were slightly burnt and Lissa noticed too.

"You got burnt!" she pointed out worriedly.

"It's nothing, Mia put the flames out so it's not too bad." Eddie shrugged nonchalantly.

"We have to go. This is our warning for us to get out of here. If we don't get out now, when this attack blows over the security at the courts will be tenfold and you two won't be able to leave the courts because of your royal status." Mia gestured at Adrian and Lissa. "If the security is increased, it'll make escape harder for us and we'll be right where the Queen bitch wants us."

"Which way do we go? Everywhere has been so marred with soot that I've completely lost my sense of direction." Lissa coughed.

"Follow me." Mia turned on her heel and dashed down the corridor seeming to completely ignore the flames. Though from the sweat gathering at her forehead and her scrunched brows, the flames were definitely bothering her more than she was expressing. Of course, with fire surrounding her like that with no source of water, she was bound to get anxious. Everyone followed her and the group weaved through the flames.

Along the way Christian stumbled since he'd been redirecting the flames wherever it was necessary and his face was pale from power strain. No doubt Christian hasn't had to use his power to such an extent for a while. Adrian grabbed his arm and supported him as they dashed along the halls through a part of the Courts that I'd never seen before.

Suddenly without warning something smashed into Lissa sending her flying to the ground. Fear consumed me as I watched and felt everything. I should be there for her, I should be there protecting her as Oksana and Clune were trying to tell me…

Fearfully she stared upwards and came face to face with a Strigoi just before he was wrenched away from her by Eddie. A millisecond later a stake was driven through his chest. Fire lapped at their skin and beads of sweat rolled down everyone's brows. As another Strigoi aimed for her, she rolled out of the way and got to her feet keeping her eye on the situation warily. Everything around them was chaos and everyone was fighting for their lives. She couldn't help but release the scream climbing up her throat when a Strigoi grabbed her by the shoulders pinning her to the ground. Adrian wasn't kidding when he said Lissa was still hopeless at self-defence.

Just as the Strigoi leaned down to bite her; a silver stake seemed to appear out of nowhere plunging into his back. He howled arching back but the silver stake hadn't hit the right spot yet. Surprise rolled through the both of us when Guardian Stan Alto appeared along with Alberta. Both were looking a little worse for wear and Stan had blood dripping down his face while Alberta had an injury at her left shoulder.

A gust of wind swept the room and I realised that they were in what looked like a garage and Mia had just opened the door.

"We can't fight all of them in this state!" Mia shouted. "Everyone get over here!"

Somehow everyone except Stan and Alberta stood around Lissa, who was standing on an odd sign drawn on the floor. "Let's go!" Christian beckoned Lissa.

"We can't just leave them," she protested. "Guardian Alto! Guardian Alberta please get over here! We can't leave them here or else they'll see what we've done and report it to the Queen," she whispered the last part.

"Then let's go help them." Adrian grunted as he broke away from the circle and threw himself into the fight once more. Concern spiralled through me as I watched. Christian groaned as he broke away too along with Eddie. His eyes were scrunched tight in concentration and suddenly the flames around were swarming around the Strigoi. Using that moment everyone with a silver stake got to work staking every Strigoi in the room.

Lissa and Mia worked to seal off the doors to buy them what little time they had. When every Strigoi in the room had fallen, they grabbed Stan and Alberta and dragged them to the symbol on the floor. Lissa, Mia, Adrian and Christian muttered a few words and light swamped them for a moment before they were suddenly standing somewhere else. Lissa looked outside of the windows a few times and she had to think for a while before she realised that they were in Spokane.

"What just happened?" Stan demanded.

"That was ancient magic, a magic that a friend taught us. It can only be used once every four weeks so we don't have to worry about them tracking us so fast." Lissa panted as she dropped to the ground.

"We made it!" Mia squealed hugging Eddie.

"What is going on princess?" Alberta asked Lissa politely.

"Sorry we dragged you away but our escape had to be kept a secret from the Queen. No doubt she was hoping for us to have been killed so it should hopefully take her a while to figure out we're not actually dead." Lissa smiled at the pair of Guardians.

"What do you mean she was hoping for you all to have been killed?" Stan started.

"Exactly what she said. My aunt wants us dead because we know the secret that will be her downfall." Adrian grunted.

"Sorry to do this to you two." Lissa smiled apologetically before she and Adrian shared a look.

"Follow what we say and do not ask questions." The pair uttered staring at the two Guardians with a firm gaze.

"Don't ask questions…" the pair muttered with a glossed expression in their eyes.

"Right, first, we need to crash for the rest of the day. None of us are in any condition to travel especially not in the sun." Adrian said rubbing his eyes in fatigue.

"I second that." Eddie nodded. "I'll take first guard."

"There's no need, you're all safe here," a voice stated kindly and everyone whipped around to face the stranger leaning against the door frame. I just stared through Lissa's eyes in pure shock. Why the hell was she in Spokane?

"Headmistress Kirova?" Lissa was the first to find her voice.

"I'm supposed to help you and I owe her too much to ruin her efforts now." Kirova smiled sadly. I couldn't understand why she was in Spokane; shouldn't she have been at the Academy? "And are you forgetting that I'm no longer the headmistress of St. Vladimir's?"

Okay, this was definitely new. From Lissa's hasty thoughts and memories, I caught the thought of the newly instated Headmaster called Mr Lazar. Kirova had been kicked out since she was deemed as 'too old' for the safety of the Academy.

"Who did you mean when you said you owed her too much?" Eddie asked cautiously.

"Raisa. When she appeared in St. Vladimir's that time with Dimitri and Rose." Well that definitely shocked everyone. No one had any idea that Riya had exposed herself during that visit. "I know that she's gone now but I'm going to do what I can to help starting now. You can release those two from compulsion, don't tire yourselves too much. There's food downstairs in the kitchen and upstairs there are more bedrooms, take whichever one you want. I'll explain the situation to Stan and Alberta. Go, you all look like you're about to collapse on me and I'm not young enough to carry you all." Kirova said with a hint of humour. The moment Lissa and Adrian released their compulsion I was zapped back to my own head.

Dimitri stared down at me with a worried glance and he brushed a strand of hair from my face as I blinked a few times and sat up slowly.

"What did you see?" he'd obviously remembered my ability to get pulled into Lissa's head so he didn't need to ask what had just happened.

"Lissa and the others have escaped from the Queen's eye. Kirova is on our side and everyone is currently staying at her house in Spokane. Kirova knows Riya and also knows that she's gone. She's no longer the headmistress and now she's going to actively help us out by keeping them safe. With Stan, Alberta and Kirova by their sides, I feel much better about them running around the place to avoid the Queen." I reported. Dimitri nodded in understanding and pulled me towards him into a comforting embrace. I noticed that we were both naked and before long we picked up where we'd left off when we were interrupted by that incident.


	7. Chapter 6

6

The next day Valentine was still not back. Everyone had returned except for Valentine and I was starting to get worried. Was she having difficulty contacting others outside this town now that Riya was gone? Was she in danger? What if she'd been caught by Tatiana and the guardians? What if something had happened to her? Oh geez now I was ranting in my own head. Was this what Riya used to do whenever her friends left town to get more help? Did she worry her little head off about them? And thinking about friends, I couldn't help but wonder how Lissa and the others were doing. I still couldn't believe that Kirova had been forced to retire as the headmistress! She'd been the headmistress of St. Vlad's even before I was there and that was a long time.

An even more startling fact was that she was acting as a favour to Riya to help conceal Lissa and the others. Did that mean that she knew where I was now? Did my mum know? Thinking back, I remembered Riya mentioning the few favours she'd done for the headmistress. She also knew my mum too. So did that mean that my mum was on our side, or was she still on the Queen's side without knowing the truth? I wanted so much to just tell her the truth but the result could go either way. As much as I knew that she loved me, would she believe me over the solid belief that had been drummed into so many guardians' minds? The only way to make her believe would be for her to see it for herself. I knew for a fact that I never would've believed such a concept if I hadn't witnessed it.

"Hey Rose? Are you alright? You seem to be in deep thought about something?" Sofia asked gently as she placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. I blinked a few times and snapped out of my thoughts. "Do you want to talk about it? How about some tea and cakes? You could use a break too. You've been working too hard."

"This is nothing." I shook my head.

"You're thinking that what you're doing is nothing compared to what Riya has done right?" she asked with a piercing gaze. I stared at her in shock as she tugged me inside. I sat silently and obediently as she set the cakes and cookies on a plate on the table between us. "Listen to me Rose. No one can match what Riya has done. It's insanity to try and compare you to her. You are you and Riya is Riya. Everyone has different ways to doing things after all. What you're doing is beyond what anyone could do with what's happened. We can't change the past, but we can still live and you're giving us the hope. Without you this town would be in chaos. Who would lead the Strigoi in this town? I know what they're like Rose, without the right type of leadership from someone they respect; they wouldn't be able to do a thing. They'd return to how they were before no doubt. They might not mean to but they would've if there was no one to remind them why they belonged to this town and what this town stood for. So stop comparing yourself to her, it's unhealthy." Sofia chastised.

"I can't help it sometimes." I smiled sheepishly. Without her around to redirect my thoughts, I was bound to travel down the dark lane occasionally. Now that I thought about it, the ring must've been taking affect since I wasn't having negative affects from shadow. I haven't had any rages since the fight and from the recent attack at the Royal Court, Lissa must've been on overload and yet I wasn't feeling any of it. I sincerely hoped that the ring didn't cause her negative affects. But if she was behaving oddly then Adrian would've reported that immediately and I would've been able to feel it when I was zapped into her mind last night.

"Rose?" Sofia asked worriedly as she waved a hand in my face.

"What? Sorry about that. I just zoned out in my thoughts." I apologised.

"That's alright; having all of this dumped on you so suddenly can't be easy. But seriously, now that you've got the people together, let them help you. Don't try to do everything by yourself. You're no use to us if you suddenly pass out from fatigue." Sofia warned.

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen, Sofia." I smiled reassuringly. "There are more experienced people in town now."

"Then I shan't keep you from your work. Take care Rose and give my regards to the Belikovs."

It somehow seemed weird to hear that. At first there were only two Belikovs, Dimitri and Riya. And now the entire remainder of the Belikovs were here. Thinking about the Belikovs, I really hoped that I earned Yeva's respect soon because having the gloomy lady glaring at me whenever she saw me was not a pleasant experience. I understood that she probably saw me as a nuisance and the cause for her granddaughter's death but that didn't mean that she had to glare at me all the time like that.

"Roza could you give me a hand at the hospital?" Zana requested and I smiled with a nod. I followed her back to the hospital and I was glad to see that the number of patients that were in the hospital had decreased significantly and they were all now working in the town.

By the end of the working day, just as I was walking back to the Belikov house a huge dog bounded up to me and nearly ran me over. I just stared at it in shock as the dog stared right back at me.

"Kiki, remember you manners," a tall man chuckled as he stepped out from the woods. I watched him warily since I didn't recognise him and I felt an odd stir in my stomach as he came closer. I wasn't sure how I knew, but my gut feeling was telling me that he was a Strigoi. "Pleasure to meet you Rosemarie Hathaway. My name is Maxim, I'm an old acquaintance of Raisa's," he bowed. I still didn't relax, how was I to know whether he was lying or not?

"Did Val send you?" I asked cautiously.

"No, I came of my own accord after a long deliberation." Maxim shook his head. "I merely came to inspect the defences of this town."

"To inspect it? Are you planning an attack?"

"Planning an attack? You could say that, but the attack is not directed at this precious town. This town will become key to our success in the future."

"You've completely lost me." I frowned.

"This town will be key to prove that not all Strigoi are mindless killers. This town will prove that we can be civilised, that there can be peace amongst us. Your friends in America shall encounter someone who will be able to help them in their mission to escape the Queen's grasp. Soon there will be someone who will appear at this town who is like me and she will help protect this town from any future attacks. I believe that Konstantin and Aleksandr should recognise her once she arrives."

"Who are you? How are you sending help?"

"That will be a question that shall be answered once the war is over." Maxim smiled. "I wish you luck in this war Rosemarie."

With that brief conversation, he suddenly disappeared along with the dog. I stared at where he was standing for a moment before letting out a breath I didn't realise I'd been holding. There was something about him that seemed lethal and dangerous. I wasn't sure whether to believe him about the fact that he was an acquaintance of Riya's or not. After all, he could've lied. I didn't know who Riya's acquaintances were, and Valentine wasn't back yet so it would be easy for us to be tricked.

Without Valentine here we were more vulnerable than we should be. Someone could easily turn up claiming to be one of Riya's acquaintances and we wouldn't have a clue as to whether it's the truth or not. I wish she would hurry. With her gone I had no idea about her well being either. I had no idea whether she'd been caught or whether she was safe. What if she'd been killed by a guardian? That would be awful for so many reasons. Valentine was the only one who knew who Riya's contacts outside of town were. Without Valentine, our help would be even more limited.

That night I had a dream talk with Adrian again.

"Hey how are you guys holding up with Kirova?" I asked as soon as he materialised.

"How did you know about that?" Adrian stared in shock.

"During the Strigoi raid and escape from the courts, I was in Lissa's head the whole time. You've gotten pretty skilled Adrian. A Moroi staking a Strigoi? I'll bet the queen wouldn't have expected that, especially of her nephew." I grinned.

"There are many things I wouldn't have expected from my aunt too." Adrian scoffed. "I guess it runs in the family, to do something completely insane and unexpected."

"Well done for protecting your own life as well as the other's. Protecting yourself is one thing, but protecting others… that's not an easy task." I complimented him.

He stared at me for a moment before a proud smile brightened his face. "Thanks Rose, that means a lot. You've certainly gotten wiser since going to Russia."

"Well, I've been surrounded by a bunch of old people so it was bound to happen." I joked.

"Hm… out of that group, who do you think is the eldest?"

"Valentine." I said after a moment of thought. Although I had no idea how much longer after Zana did Riya find Valentine but she mentioned that Riya found her 12 years after she'd been 'killed'. "Valentine seems the wisest of the lot at the moment. But then again, I haven't seen her for a while."

"Why not?"

"She's on a mission to find contacts who could help out the town." I explained.

"Do you think she contacted Kirova? She mentioned that someone informed her that Rai was gone." Adrian asked curiously.

"Perhaps. I have no idea who Val knows as Riya's contacts so she could well have contacted Kirova. It sucks that she's not the headmistress anymore, but I guess that makes it easier for her to help you guys."

"When it was announced that she would no longer be the headmistress anymore, everyone was so shocked. We were all wondering why she was being replaced. Apparently it was on the basis that she was too old for the job so they got that Lazar guy in. I don't really know about him since I haven't really seen him much."

"I don't care whether he's good or not, no one would ever be able to replace Kirova. No one. It's just not possible." I rolled my eyes.

"Wouldn't that have something to do with the fact that you practically grew up with her?" Adrian grinned.

"Maybe."

"I agree with you though, Kirova is an amazing guardian. Maybe my aunt did that to make St Vlad's more vulnerable. After all, a new headmaster would mean that he doesn't understand the school as well and there would be no way he could protect the school as affectively as Kirova would be able to." Adrian suggested.

"Then that's even more of a reason that you guys had to get out of there. Are you guys still in Spokane with Kirova?" I asked.

"Yeah, we're thinking of moving in the next couple of days though. Apparently Kirova already has somewhere safe in mind. We're going to have to keep moving and to keep a low profile too." Adrian sighed. "Being on the run is harder than I thought it would be."

"Being hunted down by the queen and avoiding her is the main issue and difficulty. If you were simply on the run it would be easier, but you're not. You're running away from the person who has the majority of the power." I smiled sympathetically. "Besides, right now, I'd rather be on the run than being glared at by Dimitri's grandma."

"You've met the rest of the Belikovs?" Adrian stared.

"Yeah, and another bonded pair too." I nodded. "Dimitri's grandma definitely has it against me."

"Ouch, family issues huh?" Adrian smirked. "Guess we've both got them. My aunt's trying to kill me and your mate's grandma has it in for you."

"Yeah the main difference is, your aunt's the bad guy and Dimitri's grandma isn't." I rolled my eyes.

"Speaking of family problems… which side do you think Janine is on?" Adrian asked worriedly. "Because she is one bitch of a fighter…"

"For now I'd say she'll be on Tatiana's side. But I don't know how she'll react to the truth. It's a good thing that Kirova's definitely on our side because that'll help for sure. Mum knows Kirova and respects her." I said thoughtfully. "I think it'll be hardest on the guardians though, all this time they've been killing Strigoi, they might start thinking about whether they killed any innocents or something. Either way the truth is going to be hard on everyone."

"And it might tear families apart too. Not everyone is going to accept such a concept no matter what happens at the end of this fight. There will be those who refuse to believe it no matter what and there will be those who doubt and there will be those who believe it. This is going to turn everything into a fat mess." Adrian grumbled.

"And if everything ends in the pleasant Strigoi's favour, then Tatiana is going to be off the throne and there will have to be a new queen. Who's the current heir?"

"So far? Me." Adrian choked out. "There's no way I'd be able to sort out the mess that will result from this. And if Tatiana wins, then we'll all be dead or locked up in the mental asylum or something. We'll be silenced that's for sure."

"Let's hope that doesn't happen." I grimaced. "We can't afford to lose this. I won't let it. All of Riya's work would be lost, there's no way we can lose this."

"We can only do our best for now. For the moment we can only wait for my aunt's next move."

"She's not the only one." I said suddenly remembering something Riya had said a while ago.

"What?"

"She's not the only 'player'. That's what Riya once said. She said that all the players have made their move. There are others but I don't know who the others are and how many are on the Strigoi's side and how many are on the queen's." I groaned in frustration.

"What are we? Playing chess?" Adrian asked incredulously.

"That's how Riya described it. She said that I'd become a chess piece and undoubtedly you guys are too." I sighed. "How did Alberta and Stan take the truth?"

"Well, Stan went nuts for a bit and Alberta went into shock. Then they both decided to trust Kirova."

"Stan and Alberta have known her for a long time; the three of them are like the seniors of St Vlad's." I smiled fondly remembering some of my childhood there. I may never have been on good terms with Stan due to my rebellious nature but I did respect him. And Alberta had always taken care of me and she was one of my favourite guardians of all time. "I thought that if anyone would be able to convince Stan and Alberta of the truth it would be Kirova."

"Good thing they believe in it too, or else we would've had two queen devoted guardians on our hands trying to bring us back to court." Adrian grunted. "That would not have been good."

"Not to mention dangerous." I added. "Stan and Alberta are highly skilled guardians. They're the legends of St Vlad's."

"As are you and Dimitri no matter what type of rumours that might have been circulating around." Adrian smirked. "You, Lissa, Dimitri, Christian, Mia and Eddie are all going to become legends one way or another."

"And don't forget about yourself Adrian, the Moroi nephew of the traitorous Queen who staked a Strigoi with skill rather than luck." I commented with a smile.

"No one but you and the others within the gang know about that thought." Adrian argued. "To the majority of the community I'm known as the failure of the family, the one who gets drunk all the time and lazes around."

"Don't be so hard on yourself Adrian." I laughed as I patted his back.

"I'm not." Adrian shook his head. "Even I know that the way I often acted isn't right. But there's never been something for me to live for. There was nothing for me to work towards. But now, now I have a reason to make an effort and I will give it my best."

"You know Adrian? When I first met you, I never would've expected you to be able to say something like that." I smiled. "If someone said that I would be hearing those kinds of words from your mouth before I came to Russia, I would've hit them for lying to me and laughed at the impossibility. But now… everything seems to be different about all sorts of things. People have changed and adapted to the new situations and we're all doing the best we can to survive and to make things right."

"There was no way we were going to stay at the Academy like cattle waiting to be killed." Adrian rolled his eyes. "And you have had a big impact on us as well as those in Russia. If it weren't for you to form the link between us and the Strigoi, we never would've realised what was really going on and without knowing, we would've been slaughtered."

"Adrian, you're the one to be thanked for creating the link. If it weren't for you jumping into Riya's dream that time, I never would've spilled the beans because it wasn't my secret to tell." I pointed out. "And technically speaking, out of us, you were the first to meet a friendly Strigoi." I teased.

Adrian's face went several shades of red and he coughed awkwardly.

"Do we have to bring that up?" he grumbled out of embarrassment.

"Yep." I nodded. "Apparently you were the one who gave her mind back."

"I was?"

"From what I've heard, she never gave specific names apparently, but when she was first turned Strigoi, she'd only drained innocents for less than half a year. She had had no help from others what so ever to help her steer away from that mad path, she had somehow managed to do it herself. But not without the help of a young child apparently. Zana said that Riya only started seeing straight again after a crash with a young kid and then she started to change her ways and reformed into the way she is now. Then there was that talk when we visited the Academy. She said that you were the one she tripped over twice at the Royal Courts. Don't you see Adrian? You were the one who gave her back her sense of humanity."

"Gee Rose are you sure you're not sugar coating it a little?"

"I don't think so. It's only a theory Adrian, but spirit users could heal. What if, instead of adding to her shadows, you'd unknowingly healed her as well? That would explain why you might not be able to learn how to heal that well now, because you'd used so much of your power when you were incredibly young. And then what if on the second encounter, you healed her again and somehow formed a bond with her? Technically you would've brought her back to life since you returned the rest of her humanity to her. Well, at least enough of it to stop her from being a mass murderer." I commented.

"Rose, I don't think it's possible to heal a Strigoi."

"That's not true." I shook my head. "I've seen it being done. There are currently two spirit users in the town I'm at. One of them has a shadow kissed bondmate. The other one doesn't have a bondmate, but she manages because of the Strigoi around. After the two serious fights, I've seen the Strigoi having their physical injuries healed."

"I've never looked into it Rose, but perhaps it would be something to ask once this whole thing settles down." Adrian pondered aloud. I could see from his expression that he was considering such a wild theory. It was a shot in the dark and probably impossible, but it was the only thing I could come up with. it was the only thing that seemed to make sense. After all, so far as I could tell, Adrian could only dream jump to Shadow Kissed people. If Adrian had indeed formed a bond with Riya; that would explain how he managed to jump into her mind when he slept.

"Listen Adrian, we'd both better get some proper rest. We're going to need all the energy we can get from now on." I suggested.

"You're right about that Rose. You are becoming quite a leader you know?"

"It's all thanks to Riya's influence." I grinned.

"That's not true, you've always had the potential, Rai merely enhanced and sharpened your skills." Adrian shook his head. "I shall see you the next time our sleeping schedules clash Rose."

"Goodnight Adrian and good luck."

"Thanks, we're going to need all the help we can get," he sighed as he faded away.

I remained in the dream realm for a while longer after his departure. I loved this place. It seemed different to the one that Adrian often brought me into. I wasn't sure why I felt as though I should know the place.

It was a gorgeous cliff that seemed to reach out to the cerulean sea, the cliff itself was a field and the rocks below were a beautiful greyish brown colour. The meadow seemed to hold so much life to it and the vibrant colours of the flowers that filled the meadow reminded me of Riya's hair. I noticed that most of the flowers seemed to be roses of all sorts of colours and the scent of it soothed me more than I could explain. Even though I knew that it was a dream, it seemed very real to me.

Just as I began to wake, I knew that must've been fantasising. Because I could've sworn that just before I opened my eyes to reality, I saw an unconscious body lying on a small patch empty of roses. I couldn't see her clearly enough to be sure, but I could've sworn that it was Riya…


	8. Chapter 7

7

Lissa's POV

Ever since we received Guardian Raisa's letter – each person received an individual letter along with a general one that everyone read – things had been tense between us all. Her letter came not long after her visit with Rose and Guardian Belikov. Within her letter, she'd given us warning and various escape routes from within the core of both the Royal Courts and the Academy.

_"It was certainly fun meeting you all at the academy and you had all been exactly like how Dimi had described. Ever since hearing about his life at the Academy, I'd wanted to meet the people who helped change him. I would never forget meeting you all or the bravery that you all show for going up against the Queen. It takes guts and more importantly faith to do that. I am lucky that you all trust Roza so much. Without her as my link, I am sure that it would've been much harder to convince you of the truth. _

_I apologise in advance for the peril that I have now put you in. Without a doubt, the Queen would eventually discover that you have learned of the truth and even more importantly she would try to 'dismiss' you. Dismiss being her word for assassination of course. _

_By knowing the truth you are all automatically a threat to her, even more so due to the fact that you are all Roza's close friends. If my suspicions are correct, then the Queen is not only corrupt and is in knowledge of non-monstrous Strigoi, but she is in fact working with one. I have yet to gather solid proof, but some research has led me to believe that she has been working alongside a monstrous and dominating Strigoi for quite some time now. How long? That is something I cannot give an answer to, but the length of time does not matter. The important point is that if she is indeed working alongside a Strigoi who wishes to take complete control over the world, then you are all in dire trouble. The Queen would know that Roza is in Russia and that she has been in close contact with non-monstrous Strigoi. Whether the Queen knows of my 'survival' or not, that is another question I don't know the answer to. _

_I have also caught wind of Kirova being forced to abdicate her position as the Headmistress of St. Vlad's. With this action I know that the Queen has made her move and that she is most likely planning another mass attack against the school to eliminate all threats which includes various skilled Guardians that have a higher allegiance to Kirova than to her. You will no doubt soon discover who those Guardians may be. _

_Your current Headmaster Lazar is an incompetent man who cannot see things deeper than what is on the surface. If anything suspicious were to happen, he would merely dismiss it as a mere coincidence or a simple accident. His position depends highly on the Queen for it is she who offered his family the nobility that he currently possesses and the Queen can withdraw such his title whenever she see fit. Lazar would never defy the Queen no matter the situation therefore I would advise you all to take care around him and his family._

_As I have warned you before, at the first sign of danger, you must all flee from the eyes of the Queen. It will not be an easy task. However, as difficult as it may be, it will not be wholly impossible. _

_Within both the Academy and the Royal Courts, there are secret passageways that depend on an ancient magic to get you out into the outside world. There are various spots which would transport you to specifically allocated spots of safety whether it be day or night. _

_The ancient magic will depend on the Moroi to activate and once a spot has been used, it would be inactive for at least four weeks after its use. Each spot has its own individual destination and no two spots have the same destination. I have already attached a map and extracts taken from books that should help you in learning the magic required to activate the spots. As old as they may be, because they are bound to an ancient magic, a magic that never fades so long as the world lives, they will always be activated so long the right magic is used. _

_If you are transported to a place where there is no one to help you, then I suggest you go to some of the addresses that I have attached on a separate sheet. Head to the nearest one to your arrival point and take as little time as you possibly could to do so. _

_There may be times when you are tracked down and approached by unknown people. I want you all to trust in your instincts and most importantly, in each other, because none of you can afford to lose faith in each other. You will all need to cooperate fully in order to survive this. Because we are currently at a war, things are unpredictable. If there is someone you do not trust, pressurise them and interrogate them until you are satisfied that they are on your side. _

_Things are progressing faster than I would've liked but now that certain people have made their moves, there is no choice but for me to move along with them and to take precaution. I wish you all good luck and for all your safety. You all play an important role in this war. You are living proof that non-monstrous Strigoi exist. I do wish that none of you would be placed in danger, but I know that it is unavoidable because I know what type of person the Queen is. She takes no chances, once she sees a threat; she would annihilate that threat without remorse or care for who she is exterminating. _

_There are a few passwords or key information you may need to memorise so please do memorise them as fast as you possibly can and destroy the information as soon as you have done so. That list of information is also written on a separate sheet. _

_Also, the simplest way to keep in touch would most likely be through Adrian by dream-walking into Roza's dreams and communicating there. I know for sure that the Queen does not have control over any Spirit users therefore intercepting conversations made via the dreams would be impossible for her._

_I know that you have all been training so keep at it! You are all improving a lot more than I thought possible. We might be able to make a great Guardian out of Moroi yet! Be extra vigilant and I hope that there will be a day when we can meet again._

_~Raisa~"_

That was her letter which was addressed to all of us. I am not sure as to what other details she might have added to the others' letters, but I knew my letter gave me more encouragement than I could ever thank her for…

_"Lissa Dragomir,_

_Forgive me in advance for any blunt statements that I may make in this letter. I am aware that you seem to be the most incompetent at combat out of you all but such a thing is not your fault. You have never had an occasion in which you had to personally battle for your life. But I have also heard that you have developed an affinity to running. I have heard that you managed to outrun many trained Guardians and that Princess is highly impressive. That shall prove to be useful in the future. Also, while you may not realise it now, there are so many things that only you will be able to accomplish as a Spirit user. For the moment I am unsure, however, I believe that I may be able to send one or two rather experienced Spirit users to you and Adrian in order to help further your skills somewhat._

_I am astounded by your passion to help despite your failures. You are similar to Roza. You are most likely protesting against such a statement, but the fact that the both of you are loyal to each and that the both of you can tell the right from the wrong is a valuable asset. Your belief in us (I speak for the non-monstrous Strigoi) will change the views of many. I have heard that you also have a talent in speech making that can sway almost any audience, even the most stubborn of people._

_You have great potential in being a great leader Lissa. You gather people to you. Your warm nature attracts people's loyalty and I am certain that you will make a great Queen. _

_I am a realist, not a fantasist and I know that there are many unpredictable things in the world. Should the Queen be defeated, she would either be sentenced to death or to eternal confinement at a special prison governed by the Eternal Council. With her forcibly removed from her position, the community will desperately require a new leader, a leader who understands the community and a leader who is compassionate and has the ability to bring the people back together. _

_No matter the outcome, there will be chaos. Should the Queen win, then there will be an everlasting open war between the two sides, and should we win, then there will be many within the community who would simply refuse to accept non-monstrous Strigoi either due to their devotion to the Queen, or that they thoroughly believe in some of the lies that are taught and refuse to accept any other concepts._

_The vampire community will require someone who will be able to quench such a chaos and to revive them. _

_While Adrian is the immediate heir due to his family ties, you must not forget that you too are a candidate that the Moroi Council will consider as being their new Queen regardless of your age. I know that you have always been a highly considered candidate and that you are the most desired candidate. _

_I believe that should you assume the position as Queen, you would be able to make a historical difference. Your views and opinions would be shared and things would be put to actions. It will be a difficult time during and post war, but I sincerely hope that there can eventually be a better peace than what we currently have. I hope that there will be a day when non-monstrous Strigoi won't have to live in fear of Guardians hunting for their blood. I hope for a day where those who believe in such Strigoi wouldn't be killed on the basis that they have witnessed or are associated with us Strigoi. _

_It breaks my heart to know that the people who live in my beloved town are constantly threatened and that as much as I try to defend it, people will always be lost whether they are human, Moroi or dhampir. I wish that they were not in such danger. _

_I look forward to seeing the differences you could make in the world and the best of luck for the future Lissa._

_~Raisa~"_

The faith that she placed upon me that I would be the next queen was both exhilarating and terrifying. Personally, I was sure that she exaggerated on how much the Council considered me as a candidate. It was also such a great honour to have such compliments from someone such as Raisa who was practically known as the best guardian of all time.

Having received these letters, we intensified our training as much as we possibly could without drawing attention to ourselves and we also memorised the maps and codes that she told us to. Mia, Eddie and I were in charge of memorising places since we seemed to be the best at absorbing information and retaining it for a maximum amount of time.

I wished that I could be more useful by perhaps having a better link with Rose. If the bond between us worked both ways, then we could contact one another with vital information regardless of the distance straight away instead of having to wait for the right time for Adrian to dream-walk. I guess having one way of safely communicating with Rose was better than nothing.

Even so, I couldn't help the nervousness I got as time passed by. I kept wondering when the Queen would finally strike. From the words that Raisa used, she was fully certain that the Queen would make a move to try and either detain us or to eliminate us completely. Then again, we needed all the time we could get. After all, we had no idea what we would be up against. The Queen did practically have ultimate power after all.

The pattern of each day seemed so identical to me that I began to lose count of how many days flew by. Each day consisted of a heavy running scheme for myself and some basic self defence lessons with Eddie and occasionally Guardian Alberta. Christian enhanced his fighting skills by training with Tasha who had decided to stay at the Academy for a little while again. She had been concerned about the kidnapping that occurred and therefore decided to stay to help him become stronger with and without his magic.

Eddie merely intensified his guardian training and left almost no time for his studies. I suppose that studies really weren't all that important right now. Our main concern was training so that we would be prepared and to be able to get out of this mess alive and as unscathed as we possibly could. Adrian researched other abilities of Spirit and also trained with Eddie as often as he could move well enough for the strict training scheme. Mia worked with her water magic and she too managed to become a competent fighter.

Raisa's next piece of news and advice was delivered in person. Since most of us were in classes, only Adrian and Eddie were free so she relayed her news to them and they told us what she had said.

Concern and anxiety rose within me when I heard of the battle that Raisa knew would occur at her beloved town. Her nightmare was becoming true. People who were important to her, people who lived in that town were going to get hurt because of the upcoming fight. If her town was about to be raided, does that mean that we were next?

It wasn't until three days later that we heard anymore from those in Russia. Adrian returned from a dream with Rose with a heart wrenching expression on his face. Before he even spoke we knew that something had happened. At first I thought that it was Rose, but something deep down told me that it wasn't Rose that was the main concern of the news from Adrian.

He tried to speak several times and each time he failed. We were gathered in his room under the pretence that we were visiting an ill friend who couldn't get out of bed. But looking at Adrian, he might as well have been ill. His hands were shaking and his eyes were bloodshot as though he'd already been crying for quite some time. When he called me, I almost couldn't make out what he had said but I had gotten the gist of his message and gathered everyone to make our way to his room. We found him sitting hunched on his bed with tears streaming down his face.

He took deep breaths and stopped trying to speak for a moment. And when he did finally speak, I wished that I never heard those first words that spewed from his mouth.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I wish that I never heard the words that spewed from his mouth. I wished that it was all a dream and that this was all part of a nightmare. But the heavy and extremely real tension in the room wrenched me away from my fantasies and hopes.

"She's dead." Adrian choked out with a small voice as his hands clenched around one another. "She's gone properly this time…"

"Who is?" Christian frowned for a moment. Then he glanced at Adrian again and realisation dawned on him before his expression changed to grief and sympathy. Sympathy that Adrian had to lose someone he loved. We all knew, without Adrian having to say the name, who had died. It seemed obvious to us somehow. We knew that it couldn't possibly have been Rose because I knew that I would feel something if Rose died. Not to mention, Adrian just returned from a dream talk with Rose so that meant that the only other person who could draw out such a reaction from Adrian would be Raisa…

"No." I whispered in denial. "That can't be… She can't possibly…"

"Shh…" Christian wrapped his arms around with silent tears slipping from his eyes as my speech became incoherent due to the grief.

The grief that we all felt was tangible and the atmosphere was so thick I could almost suffocate. The information he brought back made my blood run cold. Raisa…. THE legendary Raisa lost and now she was gone. How were we going to pull through this mess? We'd only managed so far due to all her help. Now that she was gone, what were we going to do? Reading about her warnings was one thing, preparing for danger was something that I could do. But now that the one person who has orchestrated our safety was gone, what were we supposed to do?

Just looking at Adrian broke my heart. The crest fallen expression and eyes devoid of any emotion other than pain and anguish was heart wrenching for all of us. Eddie was comforting Mia who had broken into heavy sobs. Christian was so shocked he was actually speechless for once. Both Christian and Adrian were the ones who always diffused any tense situation. But now… this blow was most likely worst for Adrian. Because although he hadn't known her for long, he had already fallen for her before he even knew exactly who she was.

I'm not all that clear about the details but I did know that the couple of dreams he shared with her changed his life. Ever since his first dream with her, I hadn't seen or heard of him drinking of smoking.

How were we going to survive now? Now Rose would be the only one taking away my darkness and there would be no one to take away Adrian's… How was Rose coping in Russia? Was she there when Raisa fell? What happened at that fight? How many innocents were killed? Who were involved? What was that town fighting against? How were they coping with Raisa gone?

The endless list of questions flooded into my mind and eventually I found the strength to speak up.

"We should leave; let's give Adrian some space to think by himself." I stated with a firm voice. "We will meet for dinner as usual and if you don't turn up Adrian I will personally drag you out. We have to keep up the normality. Remember what Raisa said in her letter? Headmaster Lazar belongs to the Queen and no doubt he is her watchdog. Anything that happens between us will be reported right back to her. We have to play this through for Raisa's sake. She has done so much for us; we cannot let her work go to waste no matter what. We have to win this war for her. And after dinner, we'll come back here for a movie and talk about what we should do from now on."

I was the first to stand and since Christian had been holding me, he stood with me. Then Eddie managed to support Mia up. "We should make ourselves look a little more normal too before heading out or else someone might think that something was wrong."

"Something _is_ wrong Lissa." Mia cried.

"But we can't show them that. We have to keep up our pretence no matter what happens from now on. This won't be the last of the bad news Mia. Just as Raisa had said, this is war and even worse this is a war against the Queen who might even be working alongside a power craving Strigoi. We have to survive this Mia, or Raisa's work will be in ruins." I reasoned with her as I wiped the tears from her eyes. I fixed her hair a little and turned to Adrian. "Be ready for dinner Adrian. You have four hours."

With that said, I turned on my heel and dragged Mia and Christian out of the room. Eddie managed to walk with a passive expression on his face. It reminded me of the expression he had after Mason's death and after he came to terms with what had happened in Spokane that time when he was caught and treated as nothing more than a bloodwhore by those Strigoi.

Eddie gently wrapped an arm around Mia and directed her towards the forest to a spot that we knew was their secret spot. A few weeks after Rose's departure, Adrian was the first to notice the subtle differences in the way Eddie and Mia acted around one another. And then I noticed after Adrian subtly commented on it one time while we were all watching a movie. The way the pair had reacted to Adrian's tease made it clear to both Christian and I that the pair was indeed in a relationship. They'd only announced it to us, but not the rest of the school. But I had no doubt that some people have pieced the hints together by now. I had a feeling that Rose noticed it too at her visit that one time.

Christian and I walked hand in hand around the more secluded parts of the campus the way we often did. For a while there was silence between us while we both collected our thoughts. Then eventually, Christian was the one to break the silence.

"Do you think that Adrian's going to recover? I've never seen that guy look like that before." Christian whispered with the concern hidden behind his cold exterior.

"I know that he will recover. The right question would be how long it would take." I sighed as I leaned against him. "Adrian's taking this hard, and no doubt he had woken up crying. I reckon that he has already shared a moment with Rose in her dream when she told him the news. For now there is nothing we can do for him. We have to let Adrian decide this for himself. But he won't be alone and he knows that. He knows that we're always going to be here for him so we'll let him choose what he wants to do rather than force our company on him. I think that that would just make things worse. What Adrian needs is time."

"It's been a long time since I've heard you take lead like that Lissa." Christian smiled lovingly at me as he stopped walking. He turned me so that I was facing him and he rested his forehead against mine as his arms encircled my waist. I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my body close to his needing the comfort that he provided.

"I will never ever forget the things Raisa put in my letter. I will always keep her words in my heart and use the confidence and faith she had in me as my strength. Without her words, I honestly don't know what I would do. Having those letters, it's like a part of her is always going to be there."

"A part of her is and always will be here with us." Christian shook his head. "She'll always be in our memories and in our hearts."

"Her words and wisdom will forever affect our actions in the future." I smiled with a nod. "I know I'll always remember and think of her words."

"We all will Lissa. We all will." Christian nodded and somehow I knew that he was thinking about the words that Guardian Raisa had placed in his letter. I didn't know what she wrote, but I do remember Christian commenting about how such a young person could have such inspiring and wise words.

Adrian's POV

I watched with a distant gaze as everyone slowly left my room. I knew that my news of Rai had broken them but I was surprised that Lissa managed to take charge like that. I wondered how she managed to find strength at a time like this since I knew that whatever strength I'd ever had was completely drained away.

I wasn't sure how long I'd continued to sit like that for, but I knew that I had to get up eventually and make myself presentable for dinner or else Lissa would have my head regardless of what had happened. After a couple of more moments I forced myself to stand. Slowly I made my way to the bathroom and I grimaced when I saw my own reflection.

My eyes were completely bloodshot from the amount of crying that I had done and there were heavy bags under my eyes. My hair stuck up in all sorts of direction and this was not in a fashionable way. I gave a sigh at my reflection decided to take a shower to freshen myself up as much as I could so that I could attempt to look normal. I took my time under the shower head and I got out just before I began to resemble a prune.

I altered my usual wardrobe and dressed all in black. I'd been told on many accounts before that black looked good on me. It had something to do with the way that it contrasted with my pale skin and hair. I wore a form fitting black button shirt and I left the top couple of buttons undone so that my usual flirtatious look was still there. The rest was simple, black pants and black shoes. I contemplated on whether I should wear a jacket to go with the whole ensemble and decided against it at the last moment.

Just as I was about to leave the room I walked past my alcohol cupboard and I found myself staring at it for a long moment. My throat clenched and my hands ached to grab a bottle so that I could drown out my depression. I managed to stop myself as my hand clenched around the handle of the cupboard. I shouldn't drink. If I drank, that would be admitting defeat. I hadn't had a drink for so long. Not since meeting Rai. I would keep myself strong. I refused to give in so quickly.

I had no doubt that I would have to smoke or drink eventually due to the spirit with no one to take away the negative affects. But I would hold off my desire for alcohol until the end. I would do at least that much for everyone. We all needed to keep our wit and my drunkenness would not help our situation at all. Smoking however was a whole other story. Instead of drinking as my way of mourning, I smoked instead.

I lit up a cigarette after I locked my door and I walked through the school towards the dorms to pick up the others for dinner. Various girls stopped to stare at me as I walked by. Any other time I would stop and flirt with them but I barely paid any attention to them.

"Adrian!" Lissa stared in shock when she opened the door. "Sorry we'll be right out."

"Don't worry cuz, take your time." I shrugged nonchalantly and leaned against the wall as I waited. Within minutes she and Christian were ready to head to dinner. We met Eddie and Mia at the cabin and they had already collected the Chinese food that I had pre-ordered yesterday.

That evening dinner was quieter than usual. We'd all kept our conversation light since we were still taking our time to mourn for Rai in our own ways with our own thoughts. I was glad that I met Rose that time at the ski lodge and I was even more glad for my decision to free load at the academy. Because thanks to my decision back then, I met this group of people. We were certainly strong enough to pull through anything.

After dinner was over, I headed back to my room and I decided to look over the letter that Rai had left behind before when she gave Eddie and me the warning. It wasn't until I finished reading the letter that I was reminded of her little gift for me. She had left behind a shoe box and in her letter she'd said that I was not allowed to open it unless something happened to her.

I felt my heart stop in shock when I stared at the object that was within the box.

Inside was a silver stake.

I wondered whether that's what the other shoe boxes that the others had contained. I had no doubt that each of them would be opening their boxes too tonight. She must've realised that it would be relatively suspicious for us to request for a silver stake and so she solved that problem and gave us each a stake.

I went to my draws and drew out a pair of leather gloves before putting them on. One major inconvenience about being a Moroi was that we couldn't touch silver stakes because it burned our skin. I took caution as I handled Rai's gift and my eyes widened again and my breath caught when I saw an engraving on an edge of the double edged stake.

The engraving was three simple letters.

Rai.

This was her stake from when she was a dhampir.

Tears blurred my vision again when I noticed the small note left on the inside of the box.

I figured that you might need some sort of a good luck charm so I thought I might give you mine since I can't use it anymore. Considering I managed to survive all this time with it, I thought that it might offer the same protection for you as it did for me. Good luck Adrian and whatever has happened, I'm sorry that I'm incapable of helping you any longer.

Stay safe.

Rai

There were no words to be said. Although, I was somewhat surprised that it wasn't Rose who received the stake but me. I would've thought that Rose would be the first candidate in mind for the stake.

Things fell into a quiet routine. We kept up our training and I managed to share a dream or two with Rose as well to see how she was doing and how the other Strigoi were coping on their end. About a week after the news, it was Mia's birthday so we decided to head to the courts to host a party and her father attended it too.

Things seemed normal. At least, as normal as it could possibly be with us all being right under my aunt's nose. A couple of days after that however, I picked up a disturbing piece of news from one of the guards. There were far more attack incidents in the cities nearby than usual and they were suspected to be Strigoi attacks. However, that wasn't the most shocking part of the news. Despite the increase of danger in the world outside of the courts, the security had barely been raised at all. After a little bit of digging, I found out that the majority of the fire users that normally worked at court were out.

That was the first warning that we had. I told the others and we'd all kept our guards up. Then two days later, all hell broke loose. I had no idea how it was managed, but herds of Strigoi stormed the court and they seemed to appear from all directions. No matter which corridor I went through, there seemed to be at least one Strigoi lurking about.

The first Strigoi I encountered was through one of the quieter corridors that hardly anyone ever went through. It was a shortcut to my room and I vaguely remembered that this was the same hall that Rai had crashed into me, twice. I had a small smile on my face when a Strigoi appeared out of nowhere and knocked me off my feet. The air left my lungs in a whoosh and I barely had time to register the attack when he was on me again. Without a thought my hand reached for the stake that I kept tucked under my jacket and I thrust upwards.

The movement was wrongly judged and I missed his heart but I did get his stomach. He snarled at me and wrenched the wood from his stomach before throwing himself at me again. By then I had managed to get a glove onto my right hand and this time I reacted with my silver stake. It took me two more tries to get it right but I managed to stake him in the end.

I panted for several moments and waited for my heart and mind to catch up with the situation. This was it. We had to leave and we had to leave now while all the chaos was still around us before we lost our chances of leaving my aunt's watchful eyes. I felt a short moment of remorse as I wondered whether the Strigoi could've been saved or not but screams that rang throughout the entire court wrenched my thoughts away and I realised that now wasn't the time to be thinking of such a thing.

Rai had once told me in her letter that those who still had their frame of mind would have a moment of hesitation before lunging for their victim no matter how hungry they were. That was why those who could've been saved were always the first to die, because they were always the ones who hesitated.

Chaos was everywhere, blood was everywhere, screams and fire was everywhere. Nowhere seemed to be safe right now. I ran through the halls, trying to find everyone. I ran into Eddie and Mia first. At any other time I would've made some sort of joke about catching the pair of them together but this was definitely not the right time for this kind of thing.

"Fancy seeing the pair of you." I grinned at them as the three of us ran towards Lissa's room. I had no doubt that Christian would be there too so that made things a little easier. The hard part was going to be getting out of this place.

"Lissa! Christian! Drop!" I shouted when I saw the pair of them amidst the flames. I noticed a Strigoi about to jump Lissa and I leapt over the flames so that I could drive my stake through the Strigoi's heart.

Surprise coiled through all of us when we saw Guardian Alto and Alberta in the car park where we were about to perform one of the old spells that Rai had told us to use. We had no choice but to take them with us after clearing out the Strigoi because we couldn't have them see what we had done and leave them there. It was definite that if we didn't take them with us, they would report to other guardians what they had seen us do and then the Queen would hear about it as well.

I was so thankful that the old spell worked and we were immediately transported away from the chaos of the courts. However, now there was some explaining to do for Guardian Alto and Alberta. As the simplest route, Lissa and I decided to use compulsion to make things easier for now until we came up with a good enough explanation for them.

It seemed that surprises seemed to appear one after another. Because when we finally thought that it was over for now, someone completely unexpected appeared to our aid. Former Headmistress of St. Vlad's: Kirova. She advised us to release our compulsion on Guardian Stan and Alberta so that we could preserve more of our energy and said that the house was for us to stay in until further notice.

The final surprise of the night before we headed to bed was that Kirova had known everything. Everything since Rai, Rose and Dimitri's visit that time at the academy. It seemed that Rai had paid the old Headmistress a visit and requested for her help. She also told us that if it wasn't for her, there was no way that we could've gotten away with getting all those combat lessons without raising too much suspicion.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Rose's POV

When I woke I felt startled and shook my head. It wasn't possible. It must've been a left over fragment of Adrian's own fantasy. I'd seen Adrian create images before in his dreams so it must've been that.

"Roza?" Dimitri whispered and nuzzled the back of my neck. I moved a little and rolled over so that I faced him.

"I just saw Adrian, they're holding up well and Stan and Alberta are now on our side." I reported to him. "Anything happen while I was asleep?"

"It's been pretty peaceful so I read a book to pass the time."

"Oi Roza! Dimitri! There's a visitor!" I heard Luka holler from outside the house.

"A visitor?" I stared at Dimitri in surprise. "We'll be right out!" I shouted back and hastily got changed. Within minutes I was ready and we ran out of the house. "Where to?"

"Cain has her down at the town hall." Luka told me and the three of us headed to town straight away.

"Good morning Rose." Mark smiled in greeting. "I guess you've heard of our visitor."

"Yeah, do you know anything about it?"

"Her name's Sydney and she's an Alchemist."

"A what?" I stared at him in shock.

"An Alchemist."

"What is that?" I frowned in confusion. I could safely say that I'd never heard of them before.

"Mark, Roza has no knowledge of the Alchemists because she never graduated." Dimitri reminded him before turning to me. "Pupils learn about the Alchemists closer to the time of their graduation. In short, it is the job of the Alchemists to keep the existence of us vampires a secret to the humans."

"They're basically the clear up squad?" I arched my brows in surprise. "And people with chemical magic? That's kind of hard to believe but after everything I've been through, I don't know why I get surprised anymore."

"I have to warn you that Alchemists don't like us much as a general whole."

"They don't like us?"

"They see us as nothing but trouble." Mark sighed.

"Which is probably true if they're our clear up squad." I commented dryly. "Who would want to be a part of the clear up squad for vampires?"

"You do have a point about that," the pair of them agreed.

"How long are you going to confine me in a puny conference room for?" I heard an agitated voice demand as we walked into the room.

"Is there something wrong about this town's conference room?" I asked coolly. "It might not be huge but it's not puny. Good morning Cain." I smiled at him and he flashed a smile back in greeting.

The Alchemist turned to face me and I noticed the way she seemed to scrutinise me for a moment before giving a sigh. "I was hoping that they were joking when they said that they leader of the town was a lousy drop out."

"Lousy?" I demanded. "Who said I was lousy?"

"I just did."

"Listen, I may have been a drop out but I refuse to be titled lousy!" I glared.

"Roza." Dimitri warned.

"To me, all vampires are lousy and drop outs are the worst because they're the ones who cause the most trouble for us and we don't even get paid for our efforts or sufficient protection."

"Alright, let's just cut to the chase since we're obviously not going to like each other. What're you doing here? Do you work for the Queen?"

"I don't work for the Queen and I never will. I'm here to offer my assistance to this town under the orders of my boss."

"Who is your boss?"

"I don't have to tell you but I give you my word that I'm not here to cause trouble or danger to this town," she said sternly.

"I'll have to take your word for it." I sighed. "I'm Rose and this is Dimitri."

"I'm Sydney," she said. She seemed to pause for a moment before speaking again. "Is it true that this was the town where Raisa died?"

I was surprised by her question and looked away before she could see my tears. "Yes. On both occasions." With that said I dashed from the room and put Mark in charge of her. I didn't want to talk to a vampire hater about Riya. I had a feeling that if I stayed there for much longer, a fight would've followed not long after.

Dimitri found me soon after I fled from the room and he found me at Sofia's where I was currently having breakfast.

"Roza? Are you okay?" he asked with a soothing tone.

"Yeah. Sorry, I just thought that it would be better if I left before I pounced on her." I smiled apologetically.

"No, that was a mature decision Roza. Before, you would have definitely jumped on her first. You wouldn't have walked away," he smiled proudly and kissed my cheek in a fond gesture.

I smiled and hugged him tightly around his waist. "Thank you Dimitri."

"Anytime Roza."

"Sorry again for giving your husband the tough job of handling the Alchemist Sofia." I grimaced. "By the way, why did she seem to be so calm even with the Strigoi around?"

"She has actually been here for over three hours already so she has sort of gotten over the initial shock." Sofia explained.

"Why didn't anyone wake me up?" I squealed.

"Because you were asleep and Dimitri threatened to tear Luka apart if he dared tried to wake you up." Sofia smirked and smiled teasingly at Dimitri.

"Dimitri!" I stared at him in shock. "That was something important so you should've woken me up."

"You needed your sleep and I didn't want to cut your dreams short." Dimitri reasoned.

"Thanks for the consideration. But really, next time you should wake me up."

"I will try to remember that," he grinned.

For the next few days I learned what I could about the Alchemists and their connection to vampires. I had always wondered why the normal human newspapers rarely contained news about odd occurrences of massacres. It turns out that Alchemists were on the whole placed in public positions where they could easily alter such news and they were in charge of altering memories of mortals who had seen something and survived. After some further probing, I discovered that Sydney had been the one sent here because of her great skills in gathering information and whoever her boss was had sent her here to help.

Another odd thing that occurred to me was that the boss of the Alchemists wasn't only Tatiana. Apparently there was another mastermind who had power over their actions in the Moroi world but I had yet to find out who that was. No matter how many times I asked Sydney, she wouldn't say.

"Rose!" Sydney called out to me as I walked around town as part of my patrol.

"Sydney? Are you okay? You look a little out of breath? Did something happen?" I asked with concern and my guard immediately shot up.

"No, nothing has invaded the town. But there's something I thought I should let you know. Remember when I said that in order to find out a little more about you, I did my own research?"

"You mean when you said you investigated me?" I scoffed remembering the verbal fight I had with her when she told me that she had completely invaded my privacy and investigated my past. "What about it?"

"Well I just received news that Victor Dashkov is on his way here. Someone has offered him protection and he's on his way here for further protection." Sydney informed me.

"Victor Dashkov?" I felt my blood run cold. "How could that be? He was in prison! No one can break out of that prison!"

"That's what I thought too so I did some digging around and I just found out that he was broken out a couple of weeks back. It turns out that he wasn't the only one either. There were a couple of other people who were broken out from that prison and the mental institute beside it."

"People were taken from the mental institute? Wait what mental institute?" I asked in surprise. I wasn't even aware that there was such a place.

"It's a place where people who've spewed nonsense has gone."

"What kind of nonsense?"

"This town's kind of nonsense. People who believe that there's another way. Of course there are some genuinely brain fried people there as well but the majority of the people there seems to be the ones who've had recollection of encountering sane Strigoi."

"Basically, people who endangered Tatiana's authority?" I frowned.

"Pretty much," she nodded. "What are you going to do? All those people are being sent here Rose."

"Well then I guess we should find places to host them." I sighed.

"What?!"

"We can't turn them away Sydney, they'll have no place to go and this place is a sanctuary for those who go up against Tatiana."

"There are some genuine criminals in that group!" Sydney protested.

"And we have sufficient guards around here to keep them in check." I told her sternly. "Do you have any idea who could've achieved the task of breaking them out?"

Sydney was quiet for a moment before shaking her head. "No, there's no indication of who could've done it. The only thing that I know is that a minimal number of guards were killed, but by morning all the guards were found to be bound to the front gate with handcuffs and they were all somewhat drained of blood. They were drained but not to the point of death."

"Drained… We can only suppose that whoever has sent them here is sort of on our side therefore now we have more reason to make sure the people have a place to stay in this town." I grumbled.

"Sort of on our side? What's that meant to mean?"

"It means that there are others out there who are sane Strigoi and they have more power than I could possibly imagine. They are only on our side because they want this town to survive through this mess. They need witnesses to expose the existence of sane Strigoi."

"How many more of them are there?"

"Honestly? I have no idea." I sighed. "Riya never told but she did hint that there were a fair few. This is why I need Valentine around; she's the only one who knows who we should be able to trust."

"Valentine?"

"Valentine, she's a sane Strigoi."

"Where is she now?"

"She's in charge of gathering allies for this town. She's the only one who knows who Riya's contacts are. So at the moment I have no idea where she is. I haven't heard a single thing from or about her since she left." I explained to her. "So how many are going to join the town?"

"Around a dozen."

"A dozen… damn I don't even know if there's going to be enough room…" I groaned and ran my hands through my hair in frustration. "We're going to have to build even more accommodations. Alright time to get to work again. Thanks for letting me know Sydney." I gave her a smile before dashing around town to gather the necessary people to discuss about building more houses for the newcomers. The town was already becoming a little cramped so it was about time to have to build new ones.

"Rose? What's up? Is there going to be an attack?" Mark asked curiously as he glanced around at the people who were gathered.

"No but Sydney told me that around a dozen people are on their way here."

"A dozen? But… we don't have the room for that!" someone protested.

"Exactly, that's why I got you guys together. We were going to have to build more buildings eventually so I need your expertise for this since I have no personal experience on architecture. Can I leave this job for you guys to sort out? I'll be glad to help out with any manual labour, just let me know what to do. As for the designs, I won't be able to help with anything like that I'm afraid." I explained.

"Well I can certainly see why people would label you a legendary undergraduate guardian," one of them burst out laughing. "Good think Riya found you in the woods kiddo, there's no way we would've been able to cope without you around to order us. Do you know how long we have?"

"Sydney?" I turned to Sydney for the answer.

"You have one week before they arrive. It would be impossible for you to build a house big enough in that time." Sydney rolled her eyes.

"It might be impossible to provide them a house, but it's long enough for us to build a big enough shelter to accommodate them until we finish building something suitable." I shook my head with a grin. "So the first target would be to build a sufficient shelter big enough for a dozen people, the second target would be to build enough houses."

"Roger that!" people chorused and got to work with the designs.

I flexed my shoulders a little and had just stood up to leave the council hall to continue my patrol when I was suddenly drawn into Lissa's mind through our bond.

Through her eyes I tried to survey the area and tried to work out her surroundings. She was in a car at the moment and it seemed that Kirova was driving. They currently seemed to be in an SUV. I had to guess that it was time for that move Kirova had mentioned to them and all I could pick out from Lissa's mind was completely jumbled up thoughts. She didn't really seem to have any idea about where they were going and to top it off she was tired because Christian had kept her up almost all night.

Everything seemed alright but then Lissa's fatigue was smashed out of her. Literally. They were on the motorway on the lanes closest to the woods when all of a sudden something smashed into the side of the SUV forcing the vehicle to roll down the small hill into the dark woods. The force of the hit had her mind reeling and she couldn't help but let out a small scream of shock.

Eventually after what felt like forever the rolling seemed to come to a halt and it took a while for Lissa to get her bearings. Alberta was the first to recover from the shock and she smoothly unfastened her seatbelt and slid out through one of the broken windows to survey the surroundings. Kirova and Stan were next and Kirova called for everyone to get out of the van as quickly as they could.

"Lissa are you okay?" Christian asked with concern clear on his face when he saw that Lissa still hadn't moved to get out. By now she was alone with Christian and everyone else was already outside. Everyone except for Mia who had been sitting on the side that had been hit and she was unconscious. Panic spread through Lissa and she shook away her disorientation and unfastened her seatbelt straight away to help Mia.

"Christian help me get her out, I'm not strong enough to do it," she told him and when she'd unfastened Mia's seatbelt, Christian took hold of her and gently but swiftly lifted her out. Lissa had barely gotten half of her body through the window when a command was directed at her.

"Lissa get back down!" Eddie shouted. Lissa did as she was told and her eyes widened in fear and shock as a body sailed over where she had been a second ago. Watching through the smashed windscreen, she saw the fight that was taking place outside.

There was another crash and two Strigoi landed into the SUV and approached Lissa. I cursed and wished that I was there to protect her. She was my best friend damn it and all I could do was watch and feel how terrified she was at the situation. I couldn't do anything to reassure her because the bond was only one way and no matter how much I wished for it, I couldn't get across to her.

Through the bond I could feel that Lissa's movements were practiced but still somewhat clumsy as she tried to dodge from the grasp of the Strigoi approaching her. She tried her best to put a safe distance between her and her attackers but there was only so much she could do in such a confined space. She knew that the only way would be to get out of the SUV. With that in mind she made sure that her movement was swift and decisive and with one move she tried to throw her body through the smash windscreen. It started to work but when she was halfway through it the Strigoi dragged her back in and she screamed.

"Lissa!" Christian shouted and tried to run to help her but he was blocked off by another Strigoi. There were far too many surrounding them so everyone was occupied.

"Let go of me!" Lissa shouted and threw a blind punch ahead of her. She felt pain ricochet up her arm as the strike connected with a Strigoi's face and she heard the snarl of anger from whoever she'd just hit.

"You bitch, we were only going to bring you in but we'll just settle for killing you instead!" one of them hissed, presumably the one she'd hit. Roughly he grabbed hold of her shoulders then slammed her back down ruthlessly and her head hit the dashboard causing stars to appear in her vision. She vaguely saw him lean down with his fangs out and she could feel his saliva dripping on her neck as he considered the spot that he would bite her.

Lissa struggled as hard as she could in her disorientated state and she screamed.

"Quite the noisy one isn't she?" the other Strigoi chuckled and clamped his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams. Fear began to envelop her even more than before and just as she felt the fangs brush her skin, she was suddenly out of the SUV and she could feel a set of arms wrapped around her in a secure hold. The hand that was on her mouth dropped to the ground along with the arm that it belonged to and Lissa yelped in shock and disgust. Glancing back at the SUV, she saw the two Strigoi snarl at her and whoever had just protected her. One of the Strigoi within was missing an arm…

Bile rose but she forced it down, she refused to be sick. With the snap of her captor's fingers, the SUV suddenly burst into flames and exploded. She shut her eyes in fear expecting pieces of the vehicle to be flying out in all directions but when nothing hit her at all, she opened her eyes and saw that the explosion had somehow been contained.

"Lissa!" Christian shouted and ran towards her. "Who are you?" he asked warily at the one who was still holding onto her with a strong grip.

"My name is Alphonse and I'm here to protect you Princess as you play a key role for us Strigoi," he smiled in a charming way and I had a feeling that it was a highly flirtatious smile too. Christian must have thought so too because his expression turned a little sour.

"Let her go," he growled and took Lissa's hand to drag her from the Strigoi's grasp.

"Ah, you must be her boyfriend, judging from your reaction. You should work on your protecting skills, if it had been me, I never would've left her alone like that." Alphonse commented lightly.

Fire suddenly lit up in Christian's palm and he made a move to punch the Strigoi but couldn't land a single punch no matter what he tried.

"Well it seems that our assistance was required more than I thought, you're not strong enough to withstand this fight let alone this war," he commented as he continued to dodge Christian without any effort. His body was suddenly enveloped by flames and for a moment Christian thought that it was his win. So did I, until I saw Alphonse patting the flames out as though they were nothing to him at all. To top it off, as though to show who the bigger man was, Alphonse produced an even bigger fire ball in his hand.

Alphonse seemed like he was just about to pounce to continue the fight when suddenly he face planted onto the muddy ground and his flame was instantly extinguished. An agitated looking lady towered over him with her hands on her hips as she glared down at him and even stepped on his back to keep him on the ground.

"Sorry about his behaviour Princess Vasilisa but my brother loves to show off to other people and he has the irritating habit of rousing fights too. Don't mind him," she smiled sweetly and apologetically at Lissa and Christian. "Are you both generally unharmed?"

"Yes." Lissa nodded and gave a small smile of her own. "I'm sorry but who are you?"

"I'm Sephrina and as Al already mentioned, we were sent to protect you because of your knowledge and the influence you could have over the vampire nation."

"What vampire nation? It's in shambles and currently being ruled by a lunatic queen who's a total psycho." Alphonse grumbled as he lifted his face from the ground.

"Who were you sent by?" Kirova narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she approached them.

"We're not entitled to give that information just yet but I give you our word on behalf of both Alphonse and I that we are here to protect you with our own lives." Sephrina gave a small bow.

"I don't trust them." Christian whispered and judging from the wary glances of the others, he wasn't the only one. Suddenly, Adrian stepped forward and seemed to scrutinize Sephrina and she arched her brows in amusement, probably wondering whether he was attempting to intimidate her or something. Adrian seemed to stare for a moment longer before giving a small nod.

"I say we trust the pair of them," he shrugged.

"What?" Christian stared at him in surprise. "You're not charmed just because she has a pretty face right?"

"No Christian, I'm not." Adrian spoke with a dry tone and rolled his eyes. "They seem to give off a similar aura to Rai so I'm judging the decision based on that. If they have a similar aura, it means that they're probably sane, well, as sane as they can be anyway."

Come to think of it, now that I paid more attention to the only way I knew how to differentiate them by appearance, I did notice that their eyes were just like the other sane Strigoi; their eyes weren't consumed by red but simply had red rings around their irises. Either Valentine was doing a really good job and had managed to send help through Riya's contacts, or these two were sent by the other players of this war who wanted to secure the existence of sane Strigoi.

It was obvious to me that Riya hadn't been the only major commander of this war. That was made clear to me by that Strigoi who had appeared with his dog that time when I was heading back to the house. I recalled that his name was Max or something… I vaguely remembered that he'd mentioned something about someone who would be sent to the town that Konstantin and Aleksandr would recognise. I began to wonder when he or she would arrive and who he or she would be.

"Rai? You must mean Raisa right?" Alphonse piped up excitedly and jumped up causing Sephrina to nearly lose her balance but she recovered almost instantly. "You've met her?"

"A couple of times," we all nodded.

"Aw that's not fair, even though I've seen her I haven't had the chance to talk to her since her change," he complained.

"So, you knew her before?" Lissa asked with interest.

"Sure, we went to the same Academy and I was her senior by a year. As you can see, I didn't get taken down until a fair few years after she did." Alphonse said proudly.

"Stop boasting already." Sephrina groaned and hit him again.

"So… now that our ride exploded, how are we going to get to our next check point?" Eddie asked as he gestured at what used to their SUV. "Not to mention we need to find some place to stay fast. We need to know what happened to Mia and whether it's serious or not."

"Oh!" Lissa suddenly gasped and remembered that Mia had been injured by the crash. She could only guess that Mia had received the injury when the Strigoi first made contact with the vehicle and had hit Mia indirectly. Lissa hastily checked Mia over trying to locate Mia's injury and found that Mia had a fractured rib from the impact that she had to take and she was also suffering a concussion. Without another thought or wasting any more time, Lissa took a deep breath and let it out before drawing her magic into her hands and began to heal Mia.

"As soon as we sensed the Strigoi that approached you, we called for another pick up to be left at a gas station not far from here. We can start heading over whenever you all feel ready." Alphonse stated.

"How long have you been tailing us?" Alberta asked warily.

"We arrived at the house yesterday and started keeping watch then." Sephrina informed her.

"We didn't even notice!" Stan gave a startled gasp.

"That's our job," she gave a smile.

"I'll carry the girl; it'll be best if you all conserve your energy just in case there's another attack." Alphonse advised them and picked up Mia gently, carrying her on his back. "Shall we get moving?"

"The sooner we get to Drake's place, the better." Kirova said and they all started walking. I wondered why despite the fight and the oddity of an SUV suddenly rolling off the motorway, no one seemed to take any notice. It was as if it hadn't happened at all which I found suspicious. No matter how dense someone was, I doubted that it would be possible to dismiss a rolling SUV.

I didn't linger in Lissa's mind for much longer because I suddenly felt someone shaking me back in Russia.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Rose?" Sydney asked shaking me again.

I blinked a few times at her and gave her a confused glance. "Something wrong?"

"Well I would count you suddenly not moving and seem to be in another place all together 'something wrong'." Sydney commented.

"Sorry, I forgot to mention that there are times when I can jump into Lissa's mind." I smiled apologetically.

"Jump into her mind?"

"Yeah, she's a spirit user and I'm her Shadow-Kissed guardian." I nodded.

"Okay, you'll have to explain that to me in simpleton terms I'm afraid because I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Um… where do I start… how much do you know about me and Lissa?"

"You've known her since you were really young, her family got into an accident along with you and apparently you survived by miracle. Then you two ran away a couple of years ago then got dragged back to the school. Now you've run away on your own and they're trying to find you again."

"Well that so called miracle was actually because of Lissa's spirit. Spirit users have been forgotten for a while and there aren't that many of them around in contrast to other specialists. Being a spirit user means that you could do a lot of things but they have in common the ability to bring back the dead and use high levels of compulsion. However their abilities have a side effect too and they get bombarded with shadows and depression. Me being her Shadow-Kissed guardian means that I can help her by drawing the darkness out from her." I took a breath and tried to think of what to say next. "Lissa's main specialty for now seems to be healing things while I've known others to specialise in dream walking or mind control."

"Does taking the depression from your… bond person have any negative effects on you?"

"Yeah it does, it makes me crazy with rage some times. Being her bond mate means that I have a one way connection with her, I can tap into her mind at any time and I can hear her thoughts and feel what she feels but it doesn't work the other way around. If my darkness from her builds too much, I could go mental and have a raging fit and direct my attack at whoever pisses me off in that moment."

"Isn't that quite dangerous?"

"Yeah, but the Strigoi here have it worse. While I only get my rage from Lissa, the Strigoi get it from everyone around them. That's what makes them mental."

"Then how do these guys get by?"

"The same way I do, by not letting it take over them have somewhat rely on the spirit users to heal away the darkness. Once the darkness is away from the spirit user, the darkness becomes diluted and they can heal it away from whoever absorbed it. At least, that's what I learned from Oksana and Clune."

"Has it ever happened to you? Losing control I mean." Sydney asked cautiously as though it was a touchy topic. I glanced at her for a moment and nodded.

"Yeah, on three occasions. The first time it happened was when I was still back at the Academy. Something had happened and Lissa became absolutely furious, then I absorbed all of that and nearly beat a Moroi boy in my year to death. I think it was towards the end of our field experience or something. If I hadn't been dragged off by Dimitri, I probably wouldn't have stopped beating that Moroi." I told her with a calm voice. "The second time it happened was when I was already here in Russia. I can't remember what triggered that one but it was pretty good timing. I was in a fight with a bunch of Strigoi and I was getting tired too quickly but the burst of darkness that exploded gave me the strength to finish the job and get out of that fight alive."

"So it could be useful as well in a way…" Sydney seemed to try and understand the concept of it all and I couldn't help but smile at the frown that grew on her face.

"It's probably hard to get your head around unless it actually happens in front of you." I commented. "But let's hope it doesn't get to that. Thanks to the spirit users around here, I've managed to stay sane along with the Strigoi here."

"I'll have to agree with you about that," she scoffed. "I don't even want to think about the possibility of any Strigoi in this town going out of control…" she shuddered.

"It won't happen. They won't let it happen." I told her with complete faith.

"How long have you been here Rose?"

"Um… I've lost count but around a month I think… or maybe more than that…" I tried to think when I first met Riya and settled in this town but I couldn't remember how long ago that was.

"That's not very long… how did you develop such trust in them so quickly?" she stared at me in shock.

"I've been through enough to know that I can trust them." I smiled. "After the different fights that we've managed to survive through together, that's enough."

"I guess you do have a point there," she nodded slowly. "Wait… I just realised, you mentioned that you lost your control three times, you've only mentioned two," she frowned.

I turned to her and gave her a rueful smile. "You're observant. You're right; I only mentioned two, because the third time I lost control was when Riya died properly. She protected me and in doing so she sacrificed her own life. Then I lost control and went on a rage against the guardians who had swarmed the town."

"I've been meaning to ask this for a while now but… who is Riya?"

I stopped in shock and just stared at her. "You don't know?"

"No, that's why I'm asking you," she crossed her arms in frustration. "I've tried looking her up but I got nothing at all which is just ridiculous."

"Sydney, Riya is the same person as Raisa. Riya was one of her names back when she was still a dhampir. Riya was the name that her family knew her by and Raisa is her guardian name." I explained to her slowly so that she could take it all in.

"Wait… so you're telling me that the legendary Raisa never disappeared twenty years ago and that she's been living as a Strigoi all this time?"

"Yes, well… until she died a second time when she protected me from a nasty guardian." I nodded.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she shook her head in protest.

"Whether you want to believe it or not, it's true and Tatiana is the cause for both occasions of her death." I stated bluntly.

"What's this talk I've been hearing about Rai?" Aleksandr asked and casually draped an arm around my shoulders.

"Oh just explaining to Sydney that Riya and Raisa is one person." I grinned. "How's things going at your end with the patrolling? Everything still safe?"

"Yep, I caught wind of something about visitors being sent our way," he frowned.

"Yeah, Victor Dashkov and a bunch of jailbaits." I nodded.

"You are certainly becoming quite the capable leader Roza; I can see why Rai thought so highly of you. Her compliments weren't false."

"How're you and Konstantin holding up?" I asked. I suddenly realised that this was the first time I spoke to Aleksandr on his own before. In fact, I hadn't spoken to either of them before. Not properly.

He seemed surprised by the question and he gave a small grim smile. "We're doing what we can to hold up."

"I'll go check up again on Victor's movements." Sydney commented when she sensed that a conversation she probably shouldn't intrude on was about to happen.

"Thanks a bunch Sydney." I smiled and then turned to Aleksandr. "Do you have some time? I'd like to talk to you and with Konstantin too sometime."

"I'll let him know that," he nodded. "And I have time."

"Let's go to the lake back at the house."

We headed back to the house at a leisurely pace and Aleksandr seemed to fill the silence with random comments the whole way. I wondered how anyone could talk so much.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" he asked curiously as we sat on the patio.

"Well I'm not sure really. It's just that we've never had a conversation before so I just felt like having one while we're all relatively safe." I shrugged. "And I wanted to apologise as well. It's my fault that you had to lose her again."

Aleksandr blinked at me several times before he boomed with laughter and he slapped my back a few times playfully although I think that he underestimated his strength a little because it hurt. "So that's what it was. Man I had a feeling that this would happen eventually. Roza, you have absolutely nothing to apologise for."

"But -"

"But nothing. Really, no matter what you might think, Rai never does anything that she doesn't believe in. And besides, whatever happened during that siege was tough, it would've been insanity to not have considered the chance of you losing your life at some point. Rai was prepared for that. She'd thought through every little detail and possibility of what could happen during that fight and she weighed the importance of each person. It wasn't a mistake that she saved you Roza. She loved you like a sister and she wouldn't have ever forgiven herself if she knew that she could save you but didn't. That's just the type of person she was. Completely reckless," he smiled fondly which had my heart churn. It was the same type of fondness that I often saw in Dimitri's eyes when he looked at me.

"You two really did love her didn't you?" I asked.

"Yes, we've never held anything else above her safety other than the Moroi's of course. But even then at the very start, Konstantin and I did muck up a couple of times and got into rather large fights. Rai sure did beat us up good for our mistakes those times."

"You two were beaten up by her?" I laughed.

"Well yeah, she was the best of the candidates after all," he smiled again and his eyes were distant as though he was recalling the past. "She was the fastest rising student in history. She aced all her tests and her fighting capabilities were incredible so she was boosted up a couple of grades. Konstantin and I were already bumped up a year because of our skills but Rai sure was impressive and within the first year of her arrival at the school and after a lot of deliberation amongst the teachers, they decided to place a six year old in a class of nine year olds."

"She was bumped up that many years?!"

"Yeah, from what I heard from the teachers at the school, they considered her abilities and the glory that the prodigy could bring to the school. They tried to figure out which year would make her excel the most and they decided that my year was the best because of Konstantin and I. Even then those cunning teachers had a feeling that we would be working together. Back then, Konstantin and I didn't really know each other. In fact we hated each other and whenever we were near each other, a fight would occur. We were the biggest trouble makers back then. And then Rai came along."

Aleksandr took a breather and turned to the woods just as Konstantin emerged. "How about you continue the story?" he suggested.

"Gladly." Konstantin smirked and sat on the other side of me. "Back then, this idiot was insufferable and it was even worse when the teachers forced us into the same room. The amount of furniture we destroyed with our fights drove the headmaster mental. When we first heard of the little prodigy who had been requested to join the school, we were a little curious but we didn't really care. But then when she was put into our year, that's when all hell broke loose."

"The other people in our year were furious, they couldn't understand why someone so young would be studying alongside them and they all thought that she would bring their standards down. At first Rai suffered through some pretty intense bullying. During training, her opponents would strike harder than they needed leaving ugly bruises and scars all over her. But not once did she complain. She was such a tough but cute little cookie."

"You know she hates to be called that." Konstantin rolled his eyes. "She kept up such a strong front to prove that she was capable. Barely anyone knew just how hard she would study and work each day and night just to catch up with the syllabus so that she wouldn't give anyone any inconvenience. She was so considerate."

"I was the first to find out about it. One night when I was bored and it was way past lights out, I snuck out of my room and decided to take a random roam around in the girl's dorms."

"This guy was well known for being a playboy from the very start." Konstantin scoffed.

"Shut up man," he said defensively. "So when I took a look around the girl's dorms, I noticed that one light was still on so out of curiosity, I climbed up a tree to see whose room it was. I was somewhat surprised to see Rai's face buried in piles off books. From that night on, it became a habit to check on her each night. I think it was the third night when I noticed something different…"

Aleksandr's Flashback General POV:

Aleksandr smoothly climbed up the tree for the third time. By now the movements were natural, almost uniform. He was more than surprised to find the window slightly open and there was a plate of cookies and a glass of milk on the outside of the windowsill. Lifting his head up he found a note stuck up on the window: 'It must be pretty tiring to climb up the tree so feel free to take them Aleksandr Beletsky.'

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he read his name. He was shocked enough to know that she'd realised he'd been watching her like some crazy stalker the past few nights but he'd never had any hints that she'd noticed him. For her to have known who he was, was even more shocking.

When he reached out for the cookies, he looked through the window to see her watching him with her chin resting on her palm and she had such a cute smile greeting him. Her eyes shone in amusement at having caught him red handed and she gave a small wave.

Aleksandr wasn't sure what to do so he'd planned on running away. He was halfway down the tree when he heard the window open fully and glancing up he saw her leaning out of the window. Her hair fell around her head and Aleksandr couldn't help but notice how long it was. Nor could he help but notice the intriguing vibrant streak in her fringe.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," she smiled sweetly.

"You? Scare me? Not a chance," he lied and even he had to admit that it was a terrible one.

"Oh really?" she arched a brow and rested her chin on her palm again. "Well whatever it doesn't really matter. Are you sure you don't want to take the cookies with you? If I eat any more of them I'll be sick."

"When did you notice?"

"What? When did I notice that there was a stalker? I wasn't that sure on the first night but then you came back on the second night. Are you trying to find some dirt on me or something so that you can blackmail me? Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not much of a blackmailing material," she smiled apologetically. "Cookie?" she asked as she held one out towards him.

Hesitantly Aleksandr climbed back up and sat on the branch. "Why aren't you creeping out or trying to report me?"

"I'm not sure. Probably because you seem funny," she grinned cheekily. "I'm Raisa. Well, actually it's Zarya but since there's already a girl called Zarya I thought it would be easier if I went with my middle name. Nice to meet you mister stalker."

"Well you already know my name but I'm Aleksandr and you can call me Alik."

"Can I? You won't be offended or think that I'm arrogant for calling you with such a familiar name?" she asked with genuine concern and the emotion in her eyes was so clear to him that Aleksandr felt that he couldn't just leave her alone. The sadness was so evident in her eyes of being excluded by her classmates. At that moment, he fully comprehended the loneliness that she must've felt for being forced into such a difficult situation by being placed into a year where everyone was at least three years older than her.

"I won't be offended," he shook his head. "I'll be offended if you don't call me Alik."

"Well then Alik it is," she laughed. "So what made you decide to take an after curfew roam?"

"I was bored so I decided to take a look at the female dorms," he shrugged.

"Isn't that a bit perverted?"

"Well most people are asleep so it's fine. In fact, all of them are asleep, except for you that is. Why are you working so hard? You'll get by with your fighting skills alone."

"Yeah but that would make the other people in the year resent me even more won't it? Just my battle skills aren't enough to make me worthy of being bumped up a couple of grades so I want to work hard for it. I don't want to disappoint the teachers either."

"I've been wondering about this but why don't you have a roommate? We don't get our own rooms until we're a senior."

She looked sheepish for a moment and gave a forced laugh. "Well, I guess I'm a special case."

"Tell the truth."

"Why should I? You're just some stalker," she said stubbornly. "Besides, why does it matter why I don't have a roommate?"

"I'm curious."

"Well, tough luck," she pouted and he found her expression incredibly cute. It was so cute that he couldn't help but chuckle. "What?"

"You really are a cute child."

"I'm only two years younger than you."

"Two years is pretty significant you know?" Aleksandr laughed and his laughter was promptly followed by a sneeze.

"Oh gosh, sorry, why don't you come in? The daylight chill must be catching up with you."

"You're inviting a boy into your room? Are you crazy?"

"It'll be fine, in exchange, you can help me with my studies." Raisa waved her hand, dismissing his concern.

"There's no way."

"What are you? Chicken?" she smirked.

"Don't make me laugh. I'm just being a gentleman."

"You can be a gentleman when you get older so just get in. I heard that you weren't stupid so please come help me out here. I'm stuck on this math problem." The way that she pleaded with him with her eyes made him rethink his decision.

Aleksandr deliberated for a while longer before he realised that he was starting to get cold so he jumped off of the branch and quietly landed on his feet in her room. By now Raisa had another chair at her desk for him to sit on and she had one of her hands fisted in her long hair in frustration.

"What are you stuck on?" he asked and casually leaned over her shoulder to have a glance at what she was working on. "Hm… you're not going to get anywhere with this unless you know your times table quite well. So how well do you know them?"

Raisa stiffened and gave him a sheepish smile. "Um…"

"Do you know them at all?" Aleksandr glared at her.

"I know doubles…" she whistled in an innocent way like a kid caught stealing from the cookie jar.

"Then for now, let's start with forcing the times table into your memory."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes," he stated firmly like a strict teacher and she pouted.

"But it's boring."

"Tough, you asked for my help so take it."

"I gave you cookies; you should be nice to me."

"I am being nice to you, by making sure that you won't fail your exams."

With that said, he began to drum the times table into her memory and he left her room after an hour since they both needed to sleep.


	12. Chapter 11

11

**_End of Aleksandr's flashback Rose's POV_**

"So that was how we first met." Aleksandr grinned. "I went to her room every night to help her out and helped her out during the day as well during our free time. It went on like that for a couple of days, and then Konstantin butted in."

"Hey, may I remind you that I knew her first." Konstantin scoffed.

"That's only because you were the class rep and you were naturally in charge of helping out the new kid."

"But nonetheless, you only bumped into her a month into her entering our year. I on the other hand knew her from the start." Konstantin smirked. "I didn't know of Aleksandr's contribution to helping her at night until a week after he started stalking her. Some of the people in class began to notice the friendly atmosphere between Aleksandr – the boy that most of the girls adored – and Raisa who had been the social reject back then. Due to that, the bullying just got worse…"

**_Konstantin's Flashback General POV_**

Konstantin began to notice that more and more injuries seemed to appear on the young girl's body and he couldn't help but feel worried about her. Since entering their year, not once had he heard her complain about the unfair treatment from others. Instead, she'd remained quiet and silently bore the bullying. One day, the people in their class were mucking around as usual waiting for the teacher to arrive to start the lesson. They were throwing around some sort of a charmed item that would send electric shocks through the holder if the ball was held for more than three seconds. Raisa who had been completely unaware of the situation had just walked into the room after a small break from the noise of the classroom.

The players of the game gestured to the ball and then to Raisa and the last person who catch the ball immediately hurled it at her. Being quick witted and quick at her reflexes, she caught the ball flawlessly but in doing so she dropped the glass of water that she had been holding. The players had hoped to hit her face with the ball but the consequence was much more than that. One of the warnings and dangers of the ball that had slipped their minds was that each time the ball was passed; the electrical current would build making the ball immensely dangerous if the ball had been passed flawlessly for a long period of time.

Unbeknownst of what the ball really was, Raisa merely held onto the ball and was just about to pass it back to the one who threw it to her when electricity shot from the ball and it was so powerful that shocks could be seen by everyone. In pain Raisa dropped the charmed ball and she stumbled back. When the ball fell to the ground it released an electric shock throughout the entire classroom and an unseen pressure exploded through the room smashing glass.

Raisa's hands were burned by the heat of the ball from the build-up of electricity and she'd collapsed to her butt in shock as she stared at the ball. Konstantin shot out of his seat as he threw a murderous glare at those who were playing with the ball and ran to the stunned girl.

"Raisa!" he called out and was at her side in an instant but Aleksandr being the faster of the two reached her first. Aleksandr reached out towards her but was shocked when he was zapped by an electric shock. It seemed that all of the charge had transferred to her and every little movement she made gained her another shock.

"What is going on?" the teacher thundered furiously. He's arrived just in time to see the accident with Raisa and he stared at the class with livid eyes. "Until those responsible for this turns themselves in, you're all in detention for a month do you understand?" Mr Volsky shouted. He crouched down so that he was eye level with Raisa and his expression changed from fury to concern. "Raisa? Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear sir," she smiled weakly and lifted her head up. She was about to stand up when another shock flared through her and she winced. "Wait here while I call for someone to help."

"It's okay, I can bear with it." Raisa shook her head fervently. "I wouldn't want to disrupt the lesson."

"Even if you can bear it, you need to go to the infirmary." Mr Volsky frowned.

"I'll take her." Konstantin declared and wrapped his arms around her ignoring the static shocks. Raisa flinched but bore with the pain.

"I'm going with them to make sure Konstantin doesn't collapse half way through." Aleksandr gave Konstantin a shove in the back into a brisk walk before anyone could object to his request.

"You just want to bunk class." Konstantin commented in distrust once they were out of earshot of the teacher.

"Shut up Kon." Aleksandr scoffed and used his invented nickname to offend Konstantin. "I'm genuinely worried about her."

"How many times have I said not to call me that Belly?" Konstantin retorted.

"Shut up you stupid nerd!"

"Why don't you shut up you stupid womaniser?"

"Why don't you both shut up? Your stupid argument is killing my brain cells." Raisa groaned.

"How're you feeling?" they both asked in synch and ignored the coincidence.

"You want my honest opinion? I feel crap. If I so much as move I feel an electric shock. Constant static shocks were not what I was expecting when I walked into the classroom. Seems like they finally got more inventive."

"Got more inventive? What are you talking about?" Aleksandr frowned in confusion.

"She means the methods they use to bully her." Konstantin told him stiffly.

"Hey! What did I say about blabbing?" she protested and glared up at him.

"Too late for that now, they've gone too far with this stunt." Konstantin scoffed.

They arrived at the infirmary not long after and the two boys left Raisa to be treated while the nurse tried to figure out a way to draw out the charge without harming her. Konstantin waited until they were out of the nurse's office before asking a question that had been bugging him for the past few days.

"Hey, when did you take an interest in Raisa?" he asked with crossed arms.

"What are you talking about?" Aleksandr retorted.

"Don't act dumb. You barely paid attention to her when she first joined our year so why start now? She's not one of those girls you can just mess around with Aleksandr."

"What makes you think that I was even thinking about something that?" Aleksandr glared at him as he felt his temper flare.

"Because it's you."

"I don't think of every girl in such a way. I'm not that low."

"I have yet to hear otherwise."

"You are so dead!" Aleksandr let out a howl of fury and launched himself at Konstantin.

Due to the fact that they were both evenly matched when it came to fighting, they simply kept beating at each other for a while until someone forcefully dragged them apart and both felt something hit their heads hard.

"I don't care what you two have against each other but shut up and stop yelling and if I see you two in another fight, I'm going to beat the both of you until you run crying to your mamas!" Raisa threatened with anger swirling in her eyes. "Now go back to the lesson before Mr Volsky decides to blame me for keeping you two for too long!"

Konstantin and Aleksandr stared at each other for a moment before staring back at the fuming girl. A smile broke across their faces before they burst into laughter as they walked back to the classroom.

**_End of Konstantin's flashback Rose's POV_**

"A ball that contains electricity? I've never heard of anything like that before…" I frowned.

"It was an illegal item that they managed to sneak into the classroom. No doubt they were planning on using it on Raisa at some point, that's why they brought it in." Konstantin scowled.

"Wow she really did have it tough…" I commented.

"Luckily, thanks to that incident the bullying quietened down considerably." Aleksandr smiled. "Especially since the pair of us assigned ourselves as her guards."

"Her guards?" I laughed.

"Yep, we weren't happy about it but we both wanted to stay by her side so we worked out our differences eventually and learned to get along."

"We didn't learn to get along until Raisa beat it into us eventually." Konstantin scoffed. "The number of times she hit us for having foolish arguments isn't countable."

"She wasn't very happy when she eventually realised that we became her menacing guards either. She didn't pick up on it until a month after when she caught someone commenting about it. Boy was she angry about that." Aleksandr whistled as he recalled the memory.

"She wouldn't talk to us for a week and didn't even let us near her either. However, during that week, the bullying came back but she proved her strength by herself and people backed off. It was hard getting her to talk to us again."

"But it worked eventually… with a lot of bribing of food and the fact that she needed our tutoring again because her grades began dropping slightly." Aleksandr laughed.

"Bribed with food?" I grinned.

"Yep, Rai was very easy to bribe when it came to delicious food."

"Gee, your academy days seem pretty eventful, even more than mine were."

"Well you did miss out on two years of yours." Konstantin rolled his eyes.

"Was that when the three of you became pretty much inseparable?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah pretty much." Aleksandr nodded.

"Wow… you guys really have been together for a long time."

"Well, if you don't count the twenty year gap that is."

"But despite the gap, nothing changed between you three." I smiled.

"No, something did change." Konstantin shook his head.

"Back then, we still had a shot with her but she couldn't choose between the two of us because she didn't want to have to pick one over the other." Aleksandr explained.

"Because she loved the both of you equally." I nodded in understanding.

"Yes, that love for us didn't change, but she seemed certain that she would never pick between us when we met her again." Konstantin stated.

"I don't get it." I frowned.

"What he means is that there was another challenger for her affections this time." Aleksandr sighed.

"Another challenger… oh!" I gasped when I realised what they meant. "You mean that no one else had ever caught her eye back then?"

"No."

"But then again, she was only fourteen and she doesn't really seem like the type to really care about whether she got herself a boyfriend or not…" I commented.

"You're right about that too. She didn't care but once she hit her teens, neither of us could help but find new feelings for her which we completely blame on adolescence."

"There was never anything indecent or scandalous other than maybe a few stolen kisses here and there when she was fourteen." Aleksandr winked.

"Yes Aleksandr, why don't you tell her about that incident when you stole Raisa's first kiss due to your stupidity for getting yourselves drunk?" Konstantin smirked.

"It wasn't my fault! It was a party, that's what happens!" Aleksandr said defensively. "And Rai never got drunk, you're just jealous that I got her first kiss."

I sat back and listened to the hilarious argument that ensued as the pair of them hurled harmless insults at one another and they even started a fist fight which was definitely entertaining to watch.

"Roza," I heard a familiar voice whisper in my ear as his arms wrapped around my waist from behind and I leaned back into his comforting embrace.

"Hey Dimitri." I smiled. "Their story is really interesting and very cute."

"You mean the story of my dear cousin?" he chuckled. "Yes, I agree that it was a very entertaining story to listen to indeed."

"Have you heard the news?"

"About the expected visitors? Yes," he nodded. "Victor is going to be here. Will you be okay?"

"If he had been bailed out of jail and is being sent here, it must mean that he is at least a little important to this cause so there's nothing I can't do about it." I sighed. "But at least now I know that he can't harm Lissa anymore because he doesn't have any hopes of controlling this town."

"You're certainly right about that. He will be under surveillance and we'll certainly make sure that he doesn't try anything out of line."

"I really wish that I had some way of getting in touch with Val, she's been gone without a single word for so long. I'm beginning to worry." I groaned in frustration.

"Give it time Roza; I'm sure that Valentine is fine to handle herself. She's managed for so many years while getting in touch with Riya on several occasions, I'm sure that she won't be brought down until her job is done."

"I just hope that we can hear something from her at some point to indicate how she is." I sighed.

Later that night, after I fell asleep I was shocked when a total stranger appeared. It was like the first time Adrian ever appeared in my dreams. It was obvious that whoever she was, she had to have been a spirit user. What concerned me was how she knew about me.

I observed the scene around me as my guardian instincts took over. We seemed to be in a beautiful greenhouse garden of some sort and she sat elegantly reading a book. When she saw me, she gave a welcoming smile and set the book down.

"Would you please join me Rosemarie?" she asked pleasantly. I watched her cautiously for a moment longer before giving into her request. She seemed harmless enough…

"Oh I can assure you Rosemarie, I'm anything but harmless," she gave a laugh that sounded like the chiming of bells and she shook her head. "But rest assured I am not here to harm you. I am here to meet the one that sweet Raisa left behind to be in charge of the town."

"You knew Raisa?"

"Yes," she nodded. "My name is Malerna and I am a member of the Strigoi council."

"The Strigoi council? Is it like a mirror of the royal courts but with Strigoi instead?"

"Not quite, even Strigoi have laws and so we have a council to uphold them. Our council has existed for centuries and the leading members have not changed since each joined. At present that are ten, we were hoping to have eleven."

"Was Riya one of the members?"

"Alas no, she was the one that we have spent the past decade trying to convert."

"What does it mean to be a council member?"

"Power Rosemarie. Great power. And being a member of the council also ensures that should a member's family or town be threatened, the other members could openly aid him/her. It's collective security. Had Raisa taken the leap and become a member of the council, we would've been able to step in to help you all at the first hint of an attack. We members are supposed to be relatively neutral and while we may hold preferences, we still cannot break old traditions."

"That's similar to any society out there." I commented with a wry smile.

"Yes." Malerna paused and fixed her gaze on me again. "I can see why Raisa chose you. You have so much power, so much potential."

"Riya once described this war as a game of chess. Would the Strigoi council happen to be a major player?"

"You are right."

"Is a Strigoi named William Blake on the council too?"

"Yes. He did mention that he paid a visit not long ago. And I have received word that our guards have reached your friends in America and are currently giving them the protection they require."

"You mean Alphonse and Sephrina?"

"You have seen," she stated with an amused gleam in her eyes. It was a statement, not a question.

"I just saw an attack that hit them and Alphonse and Sephrina stepped in to help them. Thank you for offering them protection."

"We are merely protecting important assets who will help our cause," she smiled. "You have heard the news of visitors heading your way, no? There is a guard who will remain with them and stay at the town. Some people in that town might recognise the guard."

"Could I perhaps have a hint of how many more people will be intended to be sent to the town? We need to make arrangements to expand the town and its protection as we are running out of rooms…"

"Ah yes, we have considered that problem and it will be dealt with. In the near future, a castle will appear at the town in a wide clearing within the woods."

"A castle is simply going to appear?" I asked in open shock.

"When you have been alive for such a long time, you learn many tricks Rosemarie," she laughed. "We realised that there would be a high possibility of the town running out of rooms and so we considered the different arrangements that would need to be made. In the end we concluded with sending over a castle since it will be largest. It will be modern and furnished accordingly."

"Thank you." I smiled appreciatively.

"The castle will appear slightly before the visitors."

"Is the Strigoi council the ones behind the break in of the prison?" I asked.

"Ah yes, those foolish guards were too weak to be sufficient." Malerna gave a somewhat evil smile and I felt a shudder rake through me. She made some sort of an arm gesture when she mentioned the guards of the prison and as her sleeve shifted, I noticed something around her wrist that made me stare in shock. It was a family heirloom which possessed a very familiar symbol.

"You're a Dragomir?" I asked in complete shock.

"Yes," she smiled. "When this is all over and when Tatiana has fallen, Lissa will be the most appropriate candidate to take the throne and I will be the one who can ensure her possibility of that because of the vampire laws and tradition. I will be the one who will enable her legible to go on through to the voting section of the elections."

"Wow…" I stared at her in wonder. "And all this time she's always thought that she was alone, but now it turns out she has a living ancestor."

"It seems that someone else is eager to see you Rosemarie so I shall take my leave."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Malerna." I smiled.

"We shall meet again," she told me and disappeared.

The scene changed back to a field of flowers that I could recognise and I knew who would be here.

Adrian.

"Has this become your favourite place or something? It's been this place each time we've seen each other." I laughed when I saw him lying casually amongst the flowers.

"Well…" he seemed to blush at my teasing. "This is the place where I first met her."

"You mean not counting the encounters when you were still a kid?"

"Yes Rose, not counting those," he glared at me playfully.

"How's Mia?" I asked worriedly. "Is she better now?"

"You're referring to our fight aren't you?"

"Yep. How people could miss a rolling SUV down a slope beats me but oh well at least you're all safe."

"Mia is better and she's woken up once for a little bit before falling back to sleep. Are those two Strigoi safe?"

"Aw, now you're sounding unsure." I teased. "Weren't you the one who told the others so assuredly that they were fine?"

"Well someone had to say that they were."

"They're safe." I nodded. "I can't see auras but I can tell. It's to do with their eyes."

"And you know more of the sane ones than we do so your judgement is very much appreciated," he laughed. "So how are you doing?"

"Well, for one thing, I think that there might be a possibility that Spirit runs in the Dragomir family." I grinned.

"Oh?"

"Before you came I was talking to another spirit user and she was a Dragomir."

"But Lissa's the only one left." Adrian frowned.

"So we all thought but there's one more. I don't know who she is but she's Lissa's ancestor."

"Basically, she's a Strigoi."

"Yep, you're totally getting the hang of this." I smacked his arm playfully. "So how's Christian coping with the flirt?"

"You mean Alphonse? Well, Sephrina is keeping her brother in line but Christian still tries to be the better man."

"Must be tough on him considering Alphonse has bigger and better flames than he seems to…"

"Yeah, that's another thing that freaked the hell out of us, Strigoi retain their magic?"

"Yeah, apparently so." I shrugged. "There's another Strigoi in town who's a fire user. I was shocked to death when I first saw it."

"Glad to know that it wasn't just us who found it scary."

"They can only retain the magic once they're sane so you guys shouldn't have to worry much about element wielding Strigoi."

"Well that's reassuring," he scoffed.

We continued with our random banter for a while longer before I was shook awake.

"Roza, wake up," he whispered with an urgent voice.

"Dimitri? What's wrong?"

"There's something that you should see," he told me and picked me up with the blanket still wrapped around me. He ran with me in his arms towards the town and even above the trees I could see something sticking out. I was shocked to see a castle in the woods. I just blinked at it for several moments before I smacked my forehead.

Malerna had said in the near future, I had expected in a few days' time, not before I woke up!

"I can explain this, one of Riya's friends sent it in preparation for anyone new coming to the town. They realised that there wouldn't be enough room so to help out they made a castle magically appear out of nowhere."

"This isn't just any castle Roza, this is the castle where we found Riya."

"Eh?" I screamed and looked at it again. "But it looks nothing like it! It looks so polished…"

"Well whoever sent it must've fixed it up a lot." Dimitri sighed. "When did you find out about this?"

"Just now while sleeping, one of Riya's friends is a spirit using Strigoi." I yawned. "I'll explain to the town tomorrow at a more logical time that the plan to continue developing the town is no longer urgent and that the castle needs to be checked out for fortifications."

With that said, I fell straight back to sleep in his arms.


	13. Chapter 12

**_I'm so so so sorry for the ridiculously late update of this story but I've been on such a massive blank for a while and I just couldn't for the life of me think of what I could write! But I've finally managed to write another chapter and here it is. I hope that this doesn't disappoint! ^.^ As for anyone who is interested, I've written an original story and I hope to be able to publish is so any input on the idea would be amazing! For the summary of the story, go onto my facebook page in the notes section. If you can't do that then feel free to send me a message and I'll be more than glad to tell anyone who's interested what the story is about! ^.^_**

**_Anyway... enough with my rant and on with the story!_**

* * *

Chapter 12

The next morning when I finally managed to wake up, I followed through with my usual routine which was to have a quick shower to freshen up and to wash away my sleepiness. Then I got myself ready for the day and thought about all the things that we should do to prepare for the new visitors. I remembered Malerna mentioning that one of the Strigoi guards was going to be someone familiar to us so I couldn't wait to meet who it could be. Most likely it wouldn't be someone that I knew, but perhaps someone from the town would know who he or she was.

When I reached the main house, I saw that Dimitri's family was already there and his mother, Olena was preparing breakfast for everyone.

"Good morning, Roza," she smiled warmly in greeting.

"Roza!" Viktoria beamed and gave an enthusiastic wave.

"Good morning." I replied with the same warmth as Olena had. "Thank you for making the breakfast for us again."

"Not to worry, Roza, it's my pleasure and the least I could do to repay you for providing us with protection."

"Mother, we are family, there is no need for so much formality." Dimitri sighed as he wrapped his arms around me from behind.

I felt my face warm slightly and I could feel my insides practically melt from his words. 'We are family,' he had said. At that moment, I certainly felt like the happiest person in the world.

"Hm… well if you want the formalities to stop then I guess that you had better propose to her soon to get it all confidential and set in stone." Karolina teased with a cheeky wink.

This time I could feel my face explode from embarrassment and I shook my head profusely. "I don't think we could risk something like that right now. There is far too much to do and considering the circumstances, I don't think that any of us could afford to have any distractions."

"You are certainly right about that." Dimitri agreed after a small moment's pause of an awkward silence. I wasn't entirely sure, but there was possibly a hint of disappointment in his tones when he said that.

Did Dimitri want to marry me?

Such a concept never even entered my mind. Now that I really thought about it, I really had skipped over that thought process. I had jumped straight into the deep end with wanting him to turn me into a Strigoi so that I could spend eternity with him. I certainly couldn't risk having to be separated from him again and the best way to ensure that would be for me to become immortal.

I knew without a doubt that if I were to turn Strigoi, I would want Dimitri to be the one to bite me.

But what about marriage?

Did Dimitri want that? It was just as much of a commitment as turning me immortal with his own hands. I wondered why I had never even thought about marrying Dimitri. I guess that it had become so natural for me to be with him that I didn't really think about it.

The thought of marrying Dimitri. The thought of becoming his wife made me feel absolutely ecstatic. Just the mere thought of marrying him made me forget about all the troubles that we were facing. It made me feel as though nothing else in the world mattered.

But now that I had to take other circumstances into account, could we risk it? Could we risk such a distraction? We were living in constant wariness of being attacked again. There would no longer be any warnings. Raisa could not tell us when the next attack might be or who it might be from.

We were practically blind and were sitting ducks here. We could form as many strategies as possible, but in the end, we could never anticipate what the enemy would do, nor would we know when. There were too many risks involved and I couldn't stand the thought of losing anyone else that was important to me. Already this war has already taken Raisa away from us, I didn't want anyone else to be killed.

"Roza?" Dimitri asked tentatively as he rested a gentle hand on my shoulder. I blinked several times and noticed that I had been so absorbed with my thoughts that I'd completely ignored my surroundings. I found him staring at me in concern and his lips were pursed into a thin line.

"You know, if you keep frowning like that, those lines are going to become permanent on your face." I joked lightly to ease his worry.

"Have you not been getting enough sleep?"

"I'm alright, Dimitri. Just thinking about something things, that's all." I smiled reassuringly at him and squeezed his hand for good measure. "And I do guess that I'm still a little anxious about having Victor Dashkov coming here. I can't stand the thought of having to house him here as a guest. He should be kept in prison where he belongs for what he did to Lissa. No matter his reasoning, it was still wrong."

"Isn't Victor Dashkov one of the princes?" Viktoria asked curiously.

"Yeah, and he's also an old conniving jerk who put the life of the last Moroi Dragomir at risk due to his own selfishness." I scoffed unhappily.

"What happened?" Olena asked worriedly and paused in her cleaning to face me.

"Lissa is a spirit user who can heal, Victor was a man who was growing sicklier by the minute. He wanted Lissa to use her power to heal away his illness so he plotted a lot, got his own niece to turn Strigoi to help his schemes, tortured my best friend and nearly got her killed. Good thing we managed to stop him in time but he still got what he wanted. He got healed."

"He nearly got the princess killed?"

"Yes and he also nearly got Roza killed." Dimitri added.

"I was not in nearly as much danger as Lissa was." I protested stubbornly.

"You were attacked by two hell hounds without having any weapons except for a wooden branch to protect yourself. You were on the verge of death had Lissa not saved you."

"Alright, let's just stop talking about how pathetic I was a year back, alright?" I sulked and crossed my arms.

"Well I certainly wouldn't go as far as to say that you were pathetic, inexperienced, yes, but certainly not pathetic." Dimitri smiled lovingly at me and kissed my forehead in a gesture of comfort.

Just as we were all about to sit down for breakfast, the house phone suddenly rang and I frowned in surprise. I contemplated on ignoring the call because the delicious food on the table was calling out to me. Then reluctantly, I walked to the phone and answered.

"Rose here."

"Rose, they've arrived," Mark told me simply.

"I'll be there in five." I told him briskly before putting the phone down. "I'm sorry to have to walk out like this, Olena but duty calls. I will see you guys later, thank you very much for the breakfast you made us."

"That's quite alright, Rose. Being the leader is no easy task and you are handling it perfectly." Olena smiled sweetly and kissed my cheek softly. "I hope everything goes well."

"So do I." I smiled tightly and walked out of the house with Dimitri right beside me.

"Are you prepared?" Dimitri asked, tentatively.

"As ready as I'll ever be to face that old man." I told him simply.

Soon, my fast-paced walk became a full-on sprint. I wanted to minimise the amount of time Victor Dashkov spent in this town on his own, without my watchful eye on him, as much as possible. I hadn't seen nor heard of him since the trials that condemned him to prison and if I'd had the choice, I certainly would not have chosen to have to face him again so soon.

Dimitri, being Strigoi, kept up with me easily. His feet were soft on the ground while mine fell a little harder than his did. I managed to reach the main entry way of the town in record time and when we arrived, I was surprised to see Cain staring at someone in complete shock.

"Uh… Cain?" I called out to him, waving my hand in front of his face. "Cain!" I shouted and smacked his shoulder as hard as I could. Now that got his attention. He blinked a few times and turned to glance at me in puzzlement and awe. "Cain, are you alright?"

"You must be this town's leader," a calm but somewhat cheery voice said and I turned to face the one who'd just spoken.

This woman was a Strigoi and it looked as though she was turned at a really young age, around mine to be exact. She had the same pale complexion that all Strigoi had and the same crimson ring around her irises. Her red hair was long and vibrant, shinning in the sunlight. She was tall, standing at around six ft two. She had the figure of a model and I couldn't help but stare in awe at her stature.

"Roza?" Dimitri nudged me gently to bring me back to reality and I smiled apologetically at her.

"Yeah, my name is Rose and I'm the current leader of this town." I informed her. "And you are?"

"I'm the one sent to make sure that these prisoners and valuable assets behave themselves during their stay in this town. I apologise on behalf of the Strigoi Council that we need to use this town as the main camp for keeping all those whom we need in one place. I am here to minimise the inconvenience that this will undoubtedly cause you and the town," she bowed before straightening back up. "I'm Kana Lunetta."

"Welcome to the town, Kana. I hope that you'll adapt to how this town works without any problems."

"I don't think there will be any. I'll be sure to keep these guys in line," she smiled reassuringly, gesturing at the coach of vampires outside of the force field.

"Are you the one whom Malerna had sent?"

"Yes, Lady Malerna wanted to ensure that things ran as smoothly as possible with as little inconveniences as possible."

"Kana…" Cain suddenly spoke and I jumped in surprise. He had been so silent that I didn't realise he was still here. "Kana Lunetta…"

"Hello, Cain. It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Where have you been?" he demanded furiously and grabbed her shoulders tightly with his hands. I was about to intervene with Dimitri held his arm out in front of me. I glanced up at him quizzically and he shook his head.

"I was turned on my third day of duty. Kind of pathetic, huh?" she laughed dismissively.

"How could you joke about something like this!"

"Because it is something that is in the past and there is nothing I can do to change it." Kana reasoned with a calm voice but I noticed the pain that flashed through her eyes when she spoke. Judging from what was going on, Kana and Cain had a past. A past that Cain had apparently thought was long buried. "And right now isn't the time to talk, Cain."

"Now is a good a time as any." Cain stated firmly and without further ado he threw her onto his shoulder and carried her away.

"Sorry about this, I hope that the prisoners behave themselves." Kana smiled apologetically and gave a small wave.

_Cain's POV_

My mind was reeling. This was surreal. How was she here? Was she just a part of my imagination? Was she really a Strigoi? How was she turned? What happened to her all those years ago? I couldn't understand anything and eventually Kana jumped off of my shoulder and stood in front of me so that I would stop walking. We were in one the edge of the woods and I could see Riya's favourite meadow on the cliff.

I took her hand without saying anything and lead her out into the opening. There was overcast today so the sunlight wasn't strong enough to have any effect on us at all. I held her face in my hands and stared down at her.

She looked as beautiful and as breath-taking as I'd remembered. It was heartbreaking how beautiful she was. Her luscious hair flowed in gentle waves past her shoulders and her eyes. Oh her gorgeous sapphire eyes. They were like clear crystals.

Without thinking at all, I let my head dip down and catch her lips in a deep kiss and she reciprocated without any hesitation. Everything that had been taken away from us poured into that kiss. All those years that we'd lost together. All the years that the Strigoi had torn away from us.

Love.

Lust.

Desire.

Our kiss spoke volumes of the loneliness that we'd felt. Yes, I'd been together with Maria, my first and last charge, but it was nothing in comparison to what I felt for Kana. Kana had been what I lived for before she was taken from me. She was my life and when I was told that she was gone, I'd lost it. I didn't know what to think, what to do, how to live life.

One thing led to another and soon our clothes were flying in all sorts of directions. We took our time, remembering, savouring each moment we had together. She was beautiful and passionate and everything that I loved about her.

"You are so beautiful." I whispered to her as I kissed the hollow of her neck. "So beautiful."

"And you are as impatient as I remembered," she laughed.

"Can you blame me? You've been gone for over twenty years."

"I know, Cain. I never thought that I would ever see you again," she smiled sadly and stroked my cheek. "Cain, what happened to you?"

"Do you remember that I was given Maria as my charge?"

"Of course, we were both furious but there was nothing we could do about it."

"I have to let you know, Maria and I became lovers after I found out that you were gone."

There was silence for a few moments and I could see the pain and guilt that flashed across her eyes before she finally spoke. "I haven't exactly been celibate either."

"And I wouldn't have expected you to. It's been a long time, Kana."

"Did… did she ever hurt you?"

Dark memories resurfaced and I could feel my expression darkening. "There are things that I would rather not have to go through again. She was the one who turned me. She finally went crazy in her desire for power and she killed and innocent. She tried to drag me along with her."

"And then? How did you end up in this town?"

"How much do you know about this town and what's happened to it?"

"Not much. I was simply commanded by Lady Malerna a few days ago to escort the prisoners to this town and to stay here until I was no longer needed. Bizarrely, it was almost as though she was dismissing me as her best fighter."

"You're one of the best guards?"

"You bet," she smiled deviously and I recalled all the training sessions we went through together. The way that we matched each other so well. Kana and I could possible give Konstantin and Aleksandr a run for their money if we had a competition.

"So you don't know anything else about this town and who the leader used to be?"

"I know that it was a Strigoi called Riya and she was staked by a guardian. I don't know for sure, but from the snippets that I caught from Lady Malerna's conversations with the other members of the council, it seemed that that was the trigger for all of this happening. The Strigoi Council had tolerated Tatiana's actions for a long time you see so I was wondering what made them finally act."

"We have a council?"

"Well of course you do!" she gasped and smacked my shoulder for my ignorance. "There are a lot more sane-Strigoi than you could possibly imagine. Around the world all together there are probably over 700 of us out there. With an amount like that, we definitely need a council to make sure things don't get out of hand."

"Over 700… I really don't know anything about this at all, do I?"

"Apparently not. Has Riya never mentioned anything? She definitely knew a lot about us."

"Riya had a very strange way of doing things." I chuckled. "Everything that she did was in our best interest so I don't doubt that she would have had a good reason for not telling us about the Council."

"Did… did you… you know…"

I stared at her for a moment before I understood what she was trying to say and I blanched. "God no! Riya and I weren't like that!"

"Really?"

"Really. She was like a sister whom I respected more than anyone else in the world."

"How did the people of this town take her death?"

I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts. "It didn't go as badly as it could've done. That might be because she left help behind."

"She left help?"

"For one thing, she picked Rose as the next leader. Then she'd left letters behind to help Rose take care of this place."

"She knew she was going to die?"

"Riya had the ability to see certain events in the future. I don't really know how it works but it only happens occasionally and for really drastic situations."

"She knew she was going to die and she didn't do anything to prevent it from happening?"

"If she hadn't sacrificed herself, she would never have forgiven herself for the rest of eternity. It was a choice that she made, and as much as I wish she didn't have to go, I have to respect her decision."

"So basically, she picked the lesser of the two evils?"

"Yes."

"That must have been such a tough decision to have made. If it were me, I would have chosen to save my own life."

"Riya had faith that things would somehow work out in the end. Kana, do you remember about that little prodigy from school?"

"You mean the kid who was bumped up two years and had to face a lot of bullying? Then she joined forces with Konstantin Lazarenko and Aleksandr Beletsky? Yeah I remember her, she was such an adorable kid."

"She was picked to be Tatiana's main guard."

"Well that's no surprise, but I can tell from your voice that there was more to the story."

"Raisa refused."

"That kid turned down the position?"

"Very bluntly. She said that she didn't want to work for a stupid power obsessed tyrant. Those were her words exactly."

"She dissed the queen?"

"And that got her killed. Tatiana did it by means of manipulating a Strigoi attack on the holiday home which is here."

"So what are you trying to get at by mentioning Raisa?"

"Think about her full name and try and piece it together."

Kana's brows furrowed in concentration and her lips pursed into a thin line. "Za… Zarya Raisa… something."

"Her surname was Belikov."

"Zarya Raisa Belikov." Kana repeated and I could see the realisation begin to dawn on her. "No. You can't be telling me that the trigger that started this war was the death of that crazy little prodigy child!"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you."

"But… that's insanity! How could that little kid get turned? She was the sweetest thing I'd ever met!"

"So were you, but sweetness didn't protect you." I pointed out.

"But. But why? If she was turned Strigoi, why would she risk herself like that? Why would she have chosen this?

"We've already been through this, Kana. It was the lesser of the two evils." I told her sadly.

"But…" she trailed off lamely. "Well that does explain why she was such an important figure in this war. It explains why the Council cared about her so much. They must have wanted to recruit her."

"If they were, Riya never mentioned it."

"That gal has been turning down the Strigoi Council for years," she scoffed. "They have run out of ideas on how they could convince her to join. But… I can see why she might not have wanted to involve this town in the complicated politics of it all. The Strigoi is absolutely ruthless if things get rough."

"So are we." I told her simply. "You'll love it here."

"How long have you been here?"

"Nearly twenty years, give or take."

"Well, if you've stuck around for so long, this must be a nice place," she smiled and gave me a chaste kiss. "We should probably get dressed and head back before Rose gets too confused about what's going on."

"You may be right about that. That girl has one crazy mind. She ends up with some pretty extreme conclusions if you just let her mind wonder."

* * *

**_Hehe, hope everyone liked the little snippet with Cain! I felt as though he was being somewhat ignored along the way so I decided to give him a little scene! And do people think that Rose should get married to Dimitri before, or after everything hits a finale? Should they have a wedding before there is absolute chaos or in the middle of it all? Tell me what you think! ^.^_**


	14. Chapter 13

**_I apologise once again for the terribly late update but I hope that this chapter was worth the wait! I've finally found my inspiration again with this story so hopefully the length of time between each update won't be so long again! _**

**_Lyn_**

* * *

~x~ Chapter 13 ~x~

_Rose's POV_

I stared in shock as Cain simply carried Kana away. It was rare to see Cain act so impulsive like that and it completely baffled me. Out of everyone living at the house, I would have said that apart from Dimitri, Cain was probably the most rational and calm one that I knew. But this? This Cain seemed to be anything but calm and rational. If anything, I would have thought that he wasn't even thinking of his actions. I simply stared in confusion at Cain's back as he disappeared into the woods until Dimitri gave me a gentle nudge.

"Sorry." I smiled apologetically. "So how do we actually let those guys in?"

"A small doorway has been made so the whole bus can just drive straight past the wards now." Mark informed me.

"We should probably escort everyone to the castle first so that they could decide on the rooms that they want."

"But… but they're prisoners, Rose! We can't just let them pick and choose as they wish!"

"Mark. If they were chosen to be rescued from that prison, then that means that they are important people. It is difficult to know whether they really had committed crimes or whether they had simply been framed. Tatiana wanted these specific people in prison for one reason. They know about the existence of sane Strigoi. I know that some of them probably did commit crimes, but we have enough security here to be able to handle them." I explained to him. "Besides, if Kana said that these guys should be fine then I'll believe her. The Strigoi council wouldn't have sent her if they didn't trust her judgements."

"But -"

"Mark, please just do as I say. I know they are criminals. I also know that some of them have probably committed serious crimes but they won't here. They don't have the same reason to. And there is the fact that they now owe the Strigoi council for freeing them from prison. They wouldn't want to screw up their second chance at having a relatively decent life."

He stared at me for several moments before finally giving a hesitant nod. "Alright, Rose."

"Then I shall leave you to it." I told him before turning to Dimitri. "Dimitri, please go along with him. Prince Dashkov is probably going to be an insufferable ass."

"Hopefully he won't be too much of a problem while he's here. After all, Lissa isn't here."

"But there are other spirit users here who can heal." I pointed out to him.

"Only one of them can be manipulated by him and I doubt that Clune will allow Prince Dashkov to be anywhere near her."

"You're probably right about that. And Adriana can definitely handle herself against him so she won't be in danger from his scheming antics."

"Since Kana has gone with Cain, it would be best though if I went with this bus just as a warning to them so that they don't even think about doing something to harm this place." Dimitri sighed.

"Thank you, Dimitri." I smiled and gave him a quick kiss before he led the bus through the town and towards where the castle was placed in the woods between the town and the main house.

I ran my hand through my hair and stared in the direction that Cain had dragged Kana in. "So that was what Malerna meant when she said that someone in this town may recognise the one that she sends here."

"Rose?" Alan called out when he saw me standing there.

"Morning, Alan." I greeted him with a smile.

"Were those the prisoners who are going to be staying here?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I'm really sorry but it seems that this town will become a focal meeting point for everyone who is involved in this."

"Well, if we can do anything to help avenge Riya's death then it's fine. She wanted everyone's safety above anything else after all."

"You're certainly right about that." I smiled grimly.

The rest of the morning passed by without any problems and it seemed that the prisoners stayed in the castle for the moment. But I wasn't surprised when I saw Victor Dashkov walking along the streets like he owned them. I gave a sigh and ran my hand through my hair. There was going to have to be a confrontation at some point. I knew that. It was unavoidable considering he was no longer confined in a prison and we were in the same place at the same time. I was however surprised to see him walking beside someone who looked similar to him but somewhat more withered looking.

"Ah, it is good to see you again," he smiled widely at me. But I knew it was fake. It was just for pretences.

"Hello, Prince Dashkov." I greeted him through gritted teeth.

"Allow me to introduce you. This is my brother, he is a spirit user."

Okay, now that was a shocker. I definitely didn't see that one coming. "Wait, you had a spirit user for a brother and you nearly killed Lissa just to heal yourself?! Why didn't you ask you brother to heal you slowly and gradually?!" I demanded furiously.

I wanted to punch this man. I wanted to beat some sense into him but I didn't know if that was even possible anymore. Victor Dashkov always had his own bizarre and sly way of doing things. It was almost as though he couldn't do anything normally but instead had to find some extravagant way.

"You know the side effects more than anyone else, I believe. I will not endanger my brother's life."

"And you'd endanger Lissa's? The last surviving Dragomir princess? You sure are a strange man."

"Family means more to me than anything else."

"You made your own niece turn Strigoi just to get Lissa. I don't call that prioritising family."

"She chose that path herself. I did nothing to persuade her."

"But you knew that she would do anything for you. You must've said something to her. Like saying that you wish she had been slightly stronger or more powerful?"

"I might have mentioned that on one occasional," he waved dismissively.

"And you say that you value family relations."

"I do, I care about my dearest brother here more than anything else. Rest assured, Rose, while I know that my brother is safe and I am in no danger of suffering another illness, I will not scheme anything that might endanger this place."

"Like I'm going to believe anything you say after what had happened at St. Vlad's." I glared furiously at him.

"I made a deal that even I am not foolish enough to break, Rose."

I stared at him suspiciously for several moments before I realised the true meaning of his words. "You had to make an agreement with the Strigoi, didn't you? In return for bailing you out of prison, I mean."

"And for my protection," his brother cut in. "Allow me to introduce myself, Rose Hathaway, my name is Robert Doru. I am Victor's half-brother."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. May I ask why you are involved in all of this?" I asked curiously.

"I have seen the truth once before and for years now I have been drinking far too much in order to drown out the truth from my mind," he told me honestly.

"The truth as in the existence of sane Strigoi."

"Yes."

I blinked for several moments and just stared at the pair. They were both clearly here for a good cause and whether I liked it or not, they were under the protection of the Strigoi Council and this town was currently being used as some sort of a fortress and safe town for influential people who could prove their worth. I simply gave a heavy sigh and shot a glare at Victor Dashkov.

"For all intents and purposes, I'm one of the people within the council of this town, and while you're here, I don't want anything strange to happen, do you hear me?" I glared at him.

"As I have said, Rose, I made a deal with the Strigoi and it is a deal that I intend to uphold," he told me sincerely and if I wasn't mistaken, I would have thought that I heard a hint of tiredness in his tones.

I began to wonder whether that weary tone was due the fact that he had been in prison or because of my persisting distrust of him. I thought about it for a moment, but then came to the conclusion that I didn't have the time to think about something like that for a long time and so I just simply left it. Although I knew that Victor Dashkov was a scheming person, I knew that not even he was crazy enough to go up against a deal with the Strigoi. He might have been overly ambitious as far as I was concerned, but he certainly wasn't an idiot.

"I'm not really sure what you guys can do while you're staying here so I guess for now you guys are free to just look around and immerse yourself with the townspeople." I suggested.

"There has been something that's been on my mind since the breakout, Rosemarie."

"Yes?"

"Are they really that safe?"

I stared at him firmly for a moment and was surprised by the fact that he had chosen me to ask that question. I decided to give him as honest an answer as I possibly could. "They are safer than the Queen would ever be and although they could be tricky people in terms of slyness and deviousness, they certainly aren't evil."

And with that said, I left them to ponder at my words. In all honesty, even I wasn't entirely sure about my words. I knew the Strigoi in this town, sure, but the Strigoi Council? These were vampires who have been alive, so to speak, for an extremely long time and they certainly hadn't managed to stay alive for so long without stepping on someone else's shoes at one point or another.

Were they evil? Who knew. But were they safe enough to trust for now as far as the safety of this town was concerned? Definitely. It didn't help that we now had a lot more people we had to protect from the Queen's scheming advances. We didn't have enough guards at all to be able to confidently ensure the safety of the people here and given enough time, I was sure that the Queen and her people would eventually manage to put us at a disadvantage of some sort and force us out of our town.

I wasn't a war general. I wasn't cut out for this type of stuff. Some part of me began to regret the fact that I left the Academy before graduation. If I'd stayed for longer, perhaps I would have learned how to co-ordinate these kinds of things better. Perhaps I would have learned more about military manoeuvres and the like, something that would help protect this town better.

Before I knew it, I was walking through the woods and towards the place where Riya was killed. The cliff was as daunting as ever and I couldn't bring myself to look over the edge. The memory of her falling still haunted my mind sometimes and I shivered as a chill settled over me.

"You look like you're in mighty deep thought there, Roza," a husky voice commented with a chuckle from behind me.

"I am, sort of." I smiled and turned around in time as his arms wrapped around me, catching me in a tight hug.

"Oh? What about?"

"About life in general, about the things I might have missed at the Academy by leaving early. It's just suddenly hit me, you know? That school really did do its best to teach us what we need to know to survive out here. It definitely didn't teach us everything, but the teachers did their best."

"Rose Hathaway, did you just compliment the teachers?" Dimitri blinked down at me with a wide grin on his face.

"Yes, comrade, I did." I stuck my tongue out indignantly at him. "I never really thought about it since back at school all I saw them as was a major pain in the butt and fun wreckers. But now? Seeing what life really is like, it does make me wonder. When we kids, we don't really believe that the grownups know better, but sometimes, I guess that they really do."

"And pray tell what brought on such a revelation. Oh wait, I should get a camera and catch this on tape because we are never going to hear you say something like this again. I'm sure that some of the guardians back at St. Vlad's would love to hear you say something like this."

"You're really loving this, aren't you?"

"Of course, I was your teacher once and you definitely hated me at the start."

"I didn't hate you. That's a little… extreme."

"You definitely didn't like me."

"Oh, I liked you alright. I just didn't like the fact that you rained on my parade all the time." I scoffed. "But I do understand why you did what you did back then. In the long run, it definitely was for the better."

"So, tell me. What's brought on the realisation? It's been a while since you've left the Academy, why now?" he frowned in confusion.

"We weren't quite at war when I left the Academy. But we are now, and I feel a little lost to be honest." I admitted. "I mean, Riya appointed me as some kind of a leader or something, but I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. I never finished school. I never learnt any type of military manoeuvres or anything. I just don't know how I can help here."

"For one thing, I think you should stop worrying. Focus only on what you can do. You were chosen to be a leader for a reason, Roza. You lead people well. You might not know military manoeuvres, but you don't need to. You simply need to know people who do. You direct people, you get them to do things, you keep things in control and get people working effectively. Sometimes, the leader doesn't have to be the one who knows everything, but every good leader has one thing in common."

"Oh, and what's that?"

"They all have connections that they know how to use well." Dimitri told me simply. "Riya was no different. She was the same, though granted she knew more about how to plan an attack better than you but that's to be expected since she's older than you. You are doing a great job, Roza. Don't put yourself down."

"I'm not putting myself down." I laughed. "I know that I have all these capable people around me so everything will be okay."

"Like I said, it's all about connections." Dimitri smiled and gave me a chaste kiss. He rested his forehead on mine and gazed into my eyes. "Do you miss it?"

"Miss what?"

"The Academy. You shouldn't have had to leave early, Roza."

"I don't regret it, Dimitri." I told him honestly. "I don't regret anything. If there's anything that I regret, it's not finding out more about this whole thing any earlier." I reached up with my hands and cupped his cheeks. "I don't regret coming after you. If anything I'm glad. I got to meet all these people that I never would've known about."

"I love you, Roza." Dimitri whispered softly against my lips.

"I love you, too, Dimitri. I love you so much."

I reached up and held his face in my hands as I leaned up and kissed him. It was a soft and gentle kiss, one which spoke volumes of how much we cared for each other and how much the other meant. There was one thing I was sure of. No matter what happened in this war, I wouldn't let any more of my loved ones die. This was real, Dimitri was my life and I most certainly would never let him be taken away from me again. Enough pain has been caused thanks to the Queen. It was time that she was deposed and someone else, preferably Lissa, became Queen.

We needed someone who wasn't selfish, wasn't vain and most of all didn't abuse the lives of others as she wished. That was everything that Tatiana wasn't.

"What are you thinking about this time?" he murmured.

"About how Tatiana really needs to be punished for all that she's done. She can't get away with this, Dimitri, we can't let her."

"I think that's a thought shared by all sorts of people around the world, Roza." Dimitri nodded grimly. "And she won't be punished in any way other than death. It won't be a pleasant moment for anyone. The Strigoi will no doubt demand the ultimate retribution. They'll want to make her suffer for what she's done to them."

"How do you know that?" I tilted my head to the side. "You're talking about the Council that we pretty much know nothing about, aren't you?"

"Riya has mentioned them once or twice before and she also told me what the Council would one day do to Tatiana."

"Dimitri, what do you know about the Council?"

"Not a whole lot, just that they are really sly people and definitely shouldn't be messed with. They are the most powerful group of people in the world because they have connections everywhere with everyone. All members of the Council have been around for a very long time and have some very deep rooted connections all over the world with humans, alchemists, Moroi and Dhampirs. They're even in contact with the Keepers."

"Who are the Keepers?" I blinked in confusion. "Should I know what they are?"

"No. Most people don't know about them. They're a group of vampires who isolate themselves from the politics of our world and they follow older traditions. They don't really like technology or us for that matter but they're not ruthless. They are tricky to deal with and you could say that they're a little primeval in their ways but they're not that bad. They are however incredibly anti-politics."

"They sound… dangerous."

"They can be, but so long as you don't threaten them, they're okay. They live in an isolated piece of land somewhere. I'm not entirely sure where but they have their own little civilisation where they are and don't come in contact with outsiders much."

"They don't mingle? How on earth do they get by?"

"They come into contact with humans and get their food the old way, through hunting animals and the like but they have feeders living with them."

"That sounds awfully familiar, Dimitri."

"Oh?"

"It's basically like this town, except we have technology and everything." I stated bluntly.

"Hm… so it is," he chuckled. "I wonder what Riya would have said if someone told her that this town resembled the Keepers."

"Does she not like them?"

"It's not that she doesn't like them, more like she can't understand some of their rather bizarre traditions. The one major disadvantage about her having been turned at such a young age is that there is some part of her mind that will always be just a 15 year old's mind and nothing will ever change that. No matter how mature she is, she will always remain looking like a child and sometimes that frustrates her more than she's willing to admit."

"She doesn't really look like a 15 year old though. She definitely looks more mature than her age suggests."

"But not everyone sees her that way." Dimitri shook her head. "Thinking about it, what did you first think of her when you first met her?"

I thought about it for a long hard moment, trying to recall the first time I had met Riya. I recalled briefly thinking that she had been a guardian but dismissing the thought because she seemed too young. There was also the way that she spoke sometimes, the way she spoke like a young teenager was unmistakable.

"You're right as always, she did seem like a kid. I even called her that before realising what she really was."

"See, there are people who see her as a child and aren't convinced that she's anything but a child until she proves them wrong."

"Including her?"

"Including her," he nodded.

"You're telling me that she feels insecure?" I blinked at him in shock.

"That's a part of her that hasn't changed at all throughout the years."

"But… that's ridiculous! What is there for her to feel insecure about? She's… well she's practically perfect."

"Roza, nobody is perfect and everyone has insecurities. You're perfect and yet you still manage to find faults within yourself."

"I'm not perfect." I rolled my eyes at him. "I have far too many faults to even start trying to list."

"You know, when I first met you, you probably would have agreed with me on the fact that you're perfect."

"What can I say? You and your family changed my life and my way of thinking."

"You've certainly charmed my family too."

"Not all of them." I told him flatly.

"Don't mind Yeva."

"Dimitri, that woman glares at me every single time she lays her eyes on me. How can I not mind it? If she was some random stranger, I wouldn't care so much, but she's not, she's your grandmother."

"I know, Roza. Just give it time, once she really sees you for who you are, she'll come to like you."

"You mean she sees past the fact that I'm the one who got Riya killed?"

"Roza, how many times do we have to go through this? Riya's death wasn't your fault."

"It was and I would be a fool to believe otherwise." I protested adamantly. "I'm not beating myself up about it anymore, but that doesn't change a fact."

"Roza…"

"No, Dimitri. I know you love me but this isn't something you can change no matter how hard you try." I shook my head. "Besides, I sort of think about it as my pillar of strength. Thinking about how I wasn't strong enough to fight against the guardian back then makes me want to get stronger and stronger."

"So long as you aren't blaming yourself then that's alright," he sighed and gently kissed my forehead.

"I have a rather serious question to ask you, and you have to promise me not to freak out."

"I don't freak out," he said defensively.

"Yes you do, you freaked out big time that last time I tried to talk about what we're going to do about the future."

"That is something different and incredibly serious. You completely threw me off guard. I didn't think that you were thinking that far ahead."

"I do sometimes but right now I think I just want to get out of this whole thing alive first. But there is something I want to know."

"Oh, and what's that? It's not like you to curb around asking a question like this."

"That's because I don't know how you'll react." I rolled my eyes.

"I promise I won't freak out no matter what the question is," he told me earnestly and I believed him.

"Dimitri," I paused letting him hang on the suspense. "Would you like us to get married?"


	15. Chapter 14

**_~x~ Chapter 14 ~x~_**

For a few moments, he said nothing. He did nothing, didn't move and didn't even breathe. I watched his eyes as he processed what I'd just said. I watched as the realisation and understanding of my words dawned on him and the eyes that I loved so much widened. For a moment I thought his eyes would fall out of their sockets from the amount they bulged.

"Dimitri? Dimitri, are you alright?" I asked worriedly, hoping that I hadn't freaked him out too much with my question about marriage. Honestly speaking, even I wasn't too sure how I felt about it, just that I would be the happiest person on earth if I were to become Dimitri's wife. I thought back to our earlier conversation today and remembered the odd tone of his voice after I'd protested against Karolina's not so subtle nudge for Dimitri to propose.

Suddenly I was being pressed against his chest and he was murmuring in Russian too fast for me to be able to work out what he was saying. "Can't breathe…" I choked out and he let me go only to hold me by the shoulders.

The love and yearning that gleamed in his eyes just about melted me and I gave him a shy smile. He leaned down and kissed my lips before moving all over my face. There was no spot that he left unkissed and I couldn't help but giggle at his reaction. This was certainly a better reaction than I had anticipated. For one thing, he wasn't freaking out or running as fast as he could away from me which was good.

"Oh my dearest, sweetest, beloved Roza…" he whispered and kissed me again.

I sighed in content against him as we kissed for what felt like forever. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him close even after we parted so that I could breathe. I just stared up at him, feeling mesmerised and I almost drowned in the love that swam in his eyes.

"Roza, Roza, Roza," he murmured like a chant and nuzzled my nose.

"I'm not going to suddenly disappear on you, Dimitri, you don't have to say my name like that."

"You never fail to stun me," he whispered and gave me another kiss. "It seems that you've caught me completely off guard once more, Roza."

"Oh? How so?"

"I didn't think that you wanted to by my wife from your reaction this morning."

"Dimitri, it's not that I don't want to." I shook my head with a small smile. "It's just that, I didn't know if that was something _you_ wanted considering the reaction you gave to turning me."

"Getting married and turning you are two different things, Roza."

"I know, I do understand that, and that's why I'm talking to you about this now. Besides, do we even have the time to get married with everything that's going on? That's what I'm worried about more than anything else, Dimitri. Can we afford to have the distraction?"

"It depends on what you want, Roza," he smiled.

"What I want is kind of impossible. My perfect wedding would be to have _all_ our friends with us, but that's definitely not doable."

"Do you want us to get married soon?"

"Preferably before all hell breaks loose again. Each day I wake up thinking that this might be my last. In a way it's difficult but then thinking about it positively it means that I really treasure each day making sure that I won't have any regrets no matter what happens. This is one of them. I would love to be your wife, Dimitri, I only spoke the way I did earlier because I wasn't sure how you would react and whether we could afford to have a wedding now of all times."

"I think that it is because we are in this situation that I want to have a wedding now more than ever. I don't want to have any regrets either and taking you as my wife would make the happiest man in existence. Nothing would make me happier than to marry you, Roza. I have to admit that I was somewhat disappointed this morning hearing you reject the idea so quickly."

"So, it was a good thing that we talked this out?"

"Certainly," he nodded. "I love you, Roza. You are my everything."

"My feelings exactly." I smiled and leaned up to kiss him once more.

After several moments, Dimitri was the one to pull away and relief settled on his face.

"Dimitri?"

"They are calling for us. Valentine is back."

"Finally!" I cheered, feeling relief settle over me as well.

I ran with him by my side and we both reached the town hall in record time where Valentine was waiting for us with several people. There was one Moroi that stuck out like a sore thumb and caught my attention like no other though.

I tried to think of what Riya had mentioned in one part of her letter and he was it. He really was like the combination of a fashion maniac and the mafia boss and there was a gleam in his eyes that I couldn't name when his eyes settled on me and didn't leave. The weirdest part of all was the fact that relief seemed to settle in his eyes. His expression didn't change at all, but there was an odd flicker in his eyes when he looked at me. There was something about his gaze that confused me, an emotion that I couldn't name gleamed in those assessing eyes and I couldn't help but shift under his intense gaze.

He wore a full suit with tie and all. The black suit contrasted heavily with his pale complexion but somehow the purple shirt and silver tie seemed to match him well. His eyes shifted up and down my body as he assessed me in the same way as I had him and a wide smile spread across his face.

He stepped away from the group of newcomers and Valentine eyed him cautiously as he approached me. Dimitri stepped in front of me and the stranger paused in surprise. "You must be Dimitri Belikov," the stranger with dark eyes and bizarre scarf commented with a somewhat amused tone. "Don't worry, I won't hurt her."

"I'd rather be safe than sorry." Dimitri replied tightly. "Do forgive me if I'm wrong but I believe that I have heard of you before. You are Abe Mazur, aren't you?"

"I am honoured that a warrior from this village knows who I am," the Moroi smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Then I will stay right where I am."

"If that would make you feel better," the Moroi known as Abe shrugged. "I am surprised that you managed to find yourself with these people, Rose. It seems that you really are capable of doing great things, just like your mother."

"My… you know my mum?" I blinked in surprise and stepped out from behind Dimitri so that I could see Abe.

"Yes, an acquaintance from long ago but let's not dwell on that for now. At this moment, that is not important. Your role here is what matters right now."

"Are you one of the contacts that Riya trusted?"

"I don't know if she trusted me or not, but she certainly valued my services. Allow me to introduce my guards, Pavel, Andre, and Conta."

"Thank you for coming to the town. This is going to be a dumb question but how can you help us if you are here in the town rather than outside of it gathering help or whatever it might be that you are supposed to help us with?"

"I can work efficiently enough here in this town no matter how small it might be," he told me cryptically.

"You didn't have to come here in person, Mazur." Valentine told him with a warning tone. "I did tell you that before you insisted on being here."

"I wanted to see with my own eyes how the town has fared with our little heroine gone."

"You don't sound like you actually care, about her death I mean." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I am a man who knows how to keep his emotions in check no matter the occasion."

"So, you do care?"

"I would be a fool not to. Anyone who knew her personally would care about her death."

"I see…" I trailed off lamely, not quite sure what to say. It was true after all. Anyone who knew her either mourned for her death or in Tatiana's case rejoiced. There was no one that knew her who felt indifferent about her death and it seemed that this Abe Mazur guy was the same.

"As pleasant as these introductions are, I have a job to do. I will no doubt see you two some other time." Abe said by way of goodbye and just walked out of the hall.

As soon as he was gone, I found myself reaching out for Valentine and I hugged her as tightly as I could. "I'm so glad that you're alright! It's been so long since you left and you didn't contact us at all, I had no idea what to think! I thought that you'd gotten caught or something."

"You didn't have to worry about me, Roza. The Queen doesn't know about me and I work in the shadows so no guardian knows me either. I was perfectly safe. I had to find several of Riya's other contacts but tracking Abe Mazur down took a bit more work and effort. He just wouldn't stay in one place and no matter how fast I might be, even I am no match for a jet."

"A jet?"

"Mazur has a private jet. We would have been delayed for a couple of days more if it weren't for his mode of transportation."

"He must be loaded! I mean, just look at his clothes for crying out loud. Who on earth dresses like that when walking into a war camp?"

"Abe Mazur does." Valentine told me simply as though that said it all. Considering how little I knew about the guy, it didn't mean anything to me, but I had to guess that Dimitri and Valentine understood because they both gave a sigh.

"Having him around may cause more tension than having the prisoners around but since he is Riya's contact, he shouldn't be too much trouble." Dimitri commented.

"How do you know about him?" I tilted my head to the side in confusion.

"I heard various rumours about him before I was transferred to the States to find you and the princess and to be her guard. Almost everyone in Russia knows of him, some know him by his not so dangerous reputation and others know him as someone not to mess with under any circumstances."

"So, in Riya's words, he's basically like a mafia dude?" I blinked.

"You could call it that," he nodded.

"But is he dangerous?"

"Not to us, I don't think. I never would have allowed him to be here if he was." Valentine shook her head. "I think that so long as the prisoners behave themselves and don't get on his wrong side, everything should be just fine."

"You know about the prisoners?" I glanced at her in surprise.

"Yes, I met Aleksandr at the entrance to be let in and he told me about them," she nodded. "You've been holding up well, Roza."

"I've had the best people around to help me. Welcome home, Valentine." I smiled at her, relieved that she was back and safe.

I wasn't really expecting a reaction from her at my words but I was startled when she suddenly looked stunned and lost. The way she stared and just blinked at me made me wonder if I'd said something wrong. I tried to work out what I might have said to have startled her so much like that.

"Valentine?"

"It's nothing," she shook her head. "It's just that… no one has said that to me in a very long time. I haven't had a home for a very long time."

"Well, despite the fights you get up to with Luka, this is still your home for all intents and purposes. You don't seem like the type of person to stay in one place, Valentine."

"No, I suppose that I'm not. There always seems to be something else for me to do with or without Raisa's requests of me."

"What's it like?"

"What?"

"Travelling, going everywhere, seeing and meeting all sorts of people."

"It's a wonderful experience, Roza. Once this all settles down, you should definitely go on an all around the world trip. You would really like it." Valentine smiled at me. I blinked in surprise. It was probably the first time I'd ever seen her smile and I couldn't help but smile back in return. Seeing her happy was a nice experience and I hoped that there would be more things in the future for her to smile about.

"I think I would too." I nodded in agreement.

"You should go and see Aleksandr and Konstantin. There is another Strigoi here in the town."

"Oh, I've already seen her, she escorted the prisoners here."

"I don't mean Kana." Valentine shook her head. "This is someone else."

"Another one?" I groaned. "Seriously, if they keep sending people over, we're really going to run out of space and resources around here."

"You don't need to worry about any of that. That is one of the reasons why Mazur was contacted. He will make sure that this town is well equipped with anything that we might need including a few tricks."

"Tricks?"

"I don't quite understand it myself, but if you talk to him he might explain it to you. It's something to help the humans."

"Okay…" I nodded. "Why don't you take a rest for the day? You look exhausted, Valentine and have you been feeding properly?"

"I will be fine."

"Please look after yourself, Valentine. I don't want any more casualties in this town." I told her seriously before leaving the town hall to find Konstantin and Aleksandr.

"They're over by the central fountain, Roza." Dimitri told me with a smile and took my hand gently in his.

We made our way hand in hand to where we might find the pair and I was surprised to see them fawn over someone like he was some sort of a god. This Strigoi looked like he was turned at around the same age that those two had been. The way he spoke with a smile made him seem so friendly and I wondered if this was who Max had meant when he said that someone would be joining the town and that Konstantin and Aleksandr would know him.

As Dimitri and I approached, the three of them glanced up and the stranger eyed me in curiosity. "I'm Rose, are you the one sent by the Council?"

"Yes. I have heard a lot about you, Roza. So much potential. The Council is expecting great things from you. I am Aldrik Volsky, it's a pleasure to meet the person who has been keeping this town together after our little Raisa's death."

I stared at him in surprise at his name for her. It wasn't said in a patronising way, I realised, because it wasn't in his tone. If anything, his tone of voice was soft and fond, as though she was someone very important to him and someone he held dear.

"Mr. Volsky?" Dimitri blinked at the Strigoi in surprise as though he couldn't believe what he was actually seeing.

"Hello Belikov, it has been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yes, it's been ten years since you've disappeared. Well, at least now I know what happened to you." Dimitri nodded and held out his hand and they shared a firm handshake with one another.

I was surprised by the familiarity between them and I couldn't push away the sense of recognition that I felt. I ran his name through my mind a few times, wondering why it seemed so familiar, and then I remembered.

"Are… Were you their teacher at their Academy?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, I'm surprised you know that."

"I remember one of the stories that Aleksandr and Konstantin told me about their time at the Academy and I remembered them mentioning your name at one point." I explained.

"I see, a good mind for retaining information. That is a useful skill."

"Thank you, Mr. Volsky."

"Oh please, just Aldrik will be fine," he chuckled and gave a dismissive wave. "So you are the one that our little Raisa chose. I can definitely see why."

"This is going to be a foolish question, but what are you going to do about food? I don't suppose that you intend to follow the traditions of this town in terms of feeding for Strigoi?"

"No, I don't. You have feeders in this town, no?"

"Yes."

"Then they are who Kana and I will feed from. It will be no different than a Moroi's bite for them and we will be sure not to endanger their lives either. The ways of the Strigoi who are affiliated with the Council are the same as those of the Moroi. We rely on the blood of voluntary feeders or the blood of criminals that thoroughly deserve punishment to survive."

"I… I never knew that."

"I don't suppose that you don't know much about the Council and its system at all, do you?"

"Almost nothing." I admitted.

"There is not much to know. The way we live and survive are similar to that of any Council or government around the world. We have the Council members, guards which the Council commands and Strigoi who have recovered their sanity and live scattered around the world under the Council's rules."

"There are rules?"

"Most certainly." Aldrik nodded. "I don't know them all but the most important one is that we must not kill innocents unless we wish to face ruthless punishment. I have seen what the Council's idea of a punishment is and I never wish to be put in that position personally and so rest assured that the people of this town shan't be at risk. Besides, I believe that Kana and Cain are getting reacquainted with one another again after their long separation."

"You know about those two?"

"Yes, I was their teacher as well," he nodded with a smile. "They were a lovely pair, worked so well together. I reckon they might have been an even better pair than you two are." He directed the last part at Aleksandr and Konstantin and they gaped at him.

"No pair could be better than ours," they protested defensively.

"There is only one way to find out? No?" Aldrik commented slyly. "It will be interesting to see who would win."

"Or maybe you guys will end in a draw." I cut in before the pair could start a full on debate on who would be better. No doubt Aleksandr and Konstantin would work to defend their precious title as much as they could.

"As soon as they're done being lovers, we are so demanding for a fight." Aleksandr grinned in excitement, no doubt eager to find out just who was the better fighting combo and eager to find a pair who could match them and put them to the test.

"Just keep it as tame as you could and don't actually injure each other. I need all of you to be in top shape in case anything happens. With everything that's been happening, there's no telling what's going to happen when." I warned him sternly.

"Don't worry about it, Roza. We'll keep it toned down." Konstantin nodded in acknowledgement of my concern.

"Good. Well then, I'm sure you four must still have so much to catch up on so I'll leave you guys to it. I just wanted to meet you, Aldrik, since Valentine had mentioned that there was another new Strigoi in town."

"It's been an absolute pleasure to meet you, Roza, and no doubt we will be seeing more of each other while I am staying in this town." Aldrik smiled kindly and I smiled back.

"Thank you for helping us out." I told him before leaving. I gave Dimitri a chaste kiss before heading off to check that everything was alright around the town.


End file.
